Rachel's Story
Fast Facts
Sport: Softball
Olympic History: Tokyo 2020
Year Born: 1994
State Born: NSW
About Rachel
Sydney-born utility Rachel Lack first took to the pitch as a child, alongside her brother, who played baseball. Her older cousin inspired her to take the sport more seriously, as she was a pitcher for the Australian Women's Baseball Team.
Rachel was crowned the Softball Australia Junior Female Athlete of the Year in 2013, after leading the Australian U-19 team at the ISF Junior Women's World Championship. She was also named the Most Valuable Player after winning the 2013 U19 Women's National Softball Championship after she and the NSW team were crowned victorious at the tournament.
Like many of her Spirit teammates, Rachel played college softball at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. She has played almost one hundred games for the Hawaii Rainbow Wahine Softball team. She played just two seasons before returning home to Australia, where she is studying to complete her degree in Biodiversity and Conservation at Macquarie University.
Lack 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.
Rachel 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).
