Kaia Parnaby

Fast Facts

Sport: Softball
Olympic History: Tokyo 2020
Highlights: 2x World Championship Bronze Medalist
Year Born: 1990
State Born: NSW

About Kaia

Sydney-native Kaia Parnaby got her start in softball at the age of 11 at Newport Public School during P.E. classes, furthering her pursuit of a career in professional sport after her first pitching coach saw talent in her at an early age. 

She realised her dream of Olympic glory in primary school, where she was one of a hundred school children invited to participate in the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. 

She soon joined her first club, the Pittwater Softball Club, where she was later scouted for a scholarship at the Australian Institute of Sport, which she accepted. 

At fourteen, she was named to the NSW U16 team, and to the Junior National Team two years later. That year, Kaia represented NSW at the Australian All Schools Softball Championship, winning the tournament. 

She was selected to the New South Wales Institute of Sports Softball squad in 2006, where she joined the last Olympic team in training. She has also been a member of the senior national team since 2009. 

Kaia played college softball at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, as did her sister. She played four seasons, in which she appeared in over 70 games, was named to multiple tournament teams, was voted Most Outstanding Pitcher and many more accolades. She had a career-high of seventeen strikeouts in one match in her final season and fifteen hits.

Parnaby made her Olympic debut at the Tokyo 2020 games, competing alongside the women's softball team. Australia would face a first-round matchup against Japan, now not only the past Olympic champions but also the hosts of the event. In their opening fixture, the Aussies would fall to Japan (8)-(1) a rough loss to the hosts, who would go on to win consecutive Gold medals. 

Kaia would help Australia bounce back in their second fixture of the games, where they would hold a (1)-(0) lead against Italy until the end of the tie. They would not, however, continue this run of form, later falling to eventual bronze medalists in Canada.

This would set up a must-win match against the United States, one of the strongest teams competing in the discipline. Australia would fall agonisingly close to a result against the US, in a fixture that would remain scoreless for 7 innings and required to go into extras. The United States would ultimately edge out the match, winning (2) - (1). 

In their final game, Australia would play Mexico for a place in the bronze medal match. The team would, unfortunately, fail to qualify for their third medal consecutive medal matchup, losing the match (4) - (1).