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17 years and three medals later, Osterman's last ride with USA softball is over. What's next for Cat?
Cat Osterman is retiring from softball after a 17-year Olympic career and three Olympic medals. (USA Softball/Twitter)
Nearly two decades after her debut with the University of Texas and 17 years after her first Olympic gold, softball icon Cat Osterman stepped off the Olympic pitcher's mound for the last time with a silver medal to take back home.
Osterman, a three-time Olympian who has been called the "Michael Jordan of softball," will officially retire from the international realm at 38 after a decorated career that included Olympic golds, years of retirement and plenty of adversity—from a worldwide pandemic to dashed gold-medal dreams.
Osterman and her crew left Tokyo on a bittersweet note on Tuesday with a silver medal in hand.
Osterman with Team USA in 2008. (Antoni Majewski/Twitter)
Osterman in the final in 2021. (Antoni Majewski/Twitter)
After a year of sparse in-person training and over a decadelong hiatus, Team USA and Osterman flew to the finals. In five games, the team beat Italy (2-0), Canada (1-0), Mexico (2-0), Australia (2-1), and Japan (2-1).
Deja vu struck in the final match. On one side, Osterman and fellow 2008 Olympic teammate Monica Abbott took the mound; on the other was the 39-year-old Yukiko Ueno, a familiar foe who helped the team beat Team USA last go-round.
"Just like 13 years ago," Ueno said in a press conference, "we were facing each other in the final."
Ueno, who had lost hopes at gold to Osterman in '04, outpitched her longtime opponent with six scoreless innings as Team USA was held to just three hits. The same team that squandered their gold-medal hopes 13 years before had done it once again.
Your Tokyo 2020 Olympic Silver Medalists 🇺🇸#TokyoOlympics | @TeamUSApic.twitter.com/MOMNOedHUd
— USA Softball Women's National Team 🇺🇸 (@USASoftballWNT) July 27, 2021
"There's a little bit of disappointment in not bringing home the gold since that's the eye on the prize when you go over there and you know you have a shot at it," Osterman told Austonia. "But more than anything, I'm very proud of the way our team handled everything that was part of this journey and not just the six games."
It's that very loss at the 2008 Olympics that partially motivated Osterman to get back on the mound. She officially put down the glove in 2015 after six seasons with the USSSA Pride, took time with family and began coaching at Texas State University, where she stayed until 2020. She continues to live in San Marcos.
Osterman helped ace Randi Rupp to greatness while a coach at Texas State University. (Active Voice Health/Twitter)
Because the 2012 and 2016 Games did not include softball, she thought her Olympic endeavors were well over—until talks of softball at Tokyo 2020 entered the conversation.
"It wasn't until 2016 or 2017, that it ever crossed my mind to possibly put the USA uniform on again," Osterman said. "After the World Championships in 2010, I walked away, and I thought that my career on the international stage was done. So this was a pleasant kind of new opportunity."
Three years after facing any competition, Osterman was on the field once more with world-class athletes. Some, like Osterman and Abbott, had been playing together long enough to form a formidable "Fire and Ice" duo on the mound. Others had just graduated college.
Osterman said playing with a younger generation of athletes was one of the most rewarding aspects of this year's Games.
"It can be very different when you have 24- and 38-year-olds on the same field," Osterman said. "The adversity put us in some challenging positions and we came through with flying colors. And this group will forever be special just because what we had to go through is so different."
While on the mound, Osterman's job was to give the team a calm start. Off of the field, she felt her role had much of the same effect: she knew that new Olympic feeling, and she served as a deep breath to her first-time teammates.
"There's no words to explain how nervous and excited you get knowing that the whole world can be watching," Osterman. "I think using those emotions and figuring out how to get all our butterflies lined up and going in the right direction, so that way we were all moving together, was kind of my role outside of pitching."
We've heard her retire once before, but this time Osterman said she's gone for good—even from coaching. After her final time with Team USA on Sept. 27, she plans on returning to Austin, where she'll look to work for a nonprofit.
A gold and two silvers will have to do for one of the most decorated athletes in U.S. softball history.
"To be able to say you're a three-time Olympic medalist is a pretty special deal, right?" Osterman. "I played for a long time. But those are the pinnacle, in my mind, and kind of what elicits the dream to keep playing."
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Popular
The Tesla Owners Club of Austin hosted Tesla Con Friday afternoon, continuing the party for fans after the gigafactory hosted its grand opening Thursday evening with much fanfare that included fireworks and a drone show.
The festivities featured panels of Tesla fans and investors talking about where the automaker company is headed and what the future of Austin looks like with Tesla's headquarters here and other tech giants growing their Central Texas presence.
“It's a walkable downtown, we have great music, we have great art, we have a friendly attitude and we’re really open to people coming from other places, so if you’re thinking of moving here, I promise, people are really friendly,” one panelist said while in conversation with tech YouTuber Galileo Russell.
Organizers also attempted to set a world record for most Tesla vehicles gathered in one place.
Some, like Haya Hasan, were still gushing over the grand opening party.
"What's amazing is you'll have like yesterday with 15,000 in attendance, I would say mostly younger crowd, like early 20s," Hasan said. "And it was just such a positive, amazing high energy for a car company. What other car company has this type of following?"
Hasan lives in Austin working in marketing for manufacturing corporation 3M and talked about how Tesla's gigafactory is giving Austin a new image.
"Just to be able to say that Tesla has a factory here is great for our economy, it's already creating this amazing buzz within the city. It's really putting us on the map," Hasan said. "I think people would hear about Austin like 'oh it's a great music capital of the world.' Now, it's going to add a different brand to Austin—it's not just music. It's high tech and entrepreneurship and all that."
For others who couldn't snag a ticket to the grand opening, Tesla Con was an opportunity to gather with fellow fans. Ryan Wrobleski, a 17-year-old who made a two-and-a-half-hour drive coming from north of Houston, started investing in Tesla in 2019 and owns a Model 3. While he didn't have a pass for the grand opening, he joined others on the side of the road who watched the festivities from afar.
"That excitement—I didn't think it'd be this contagious, but it's pretty hard to not get excited about," Wrobleski said.
Panelists pondered over Tesla's activity, like what will happen with the wide swath of open floor space they noticed in the factory or whether the company should extract lithium in the U.S.
But they acknowledged Musk will ultimately have the last word on those actions. He'd even bemoaned the price of lithium—a mineral used in lithium-ion batteries for EVs—earlier in the day, tweeting, "Tesla might actually have to get into the mining & refining directly at scale unless costs improve."
On Musk, panelist Dave Lee said "most CEOs, most people, reach a certain pinnacle, they call it quits, buy their island, penthouses all over the world and chill out."
Not Musk though. One thing Tesla Con attendees seemed in agreement on was their praise of him, characterizing him as an engineer and artist who will go down in history.
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(Tito's Handmade Vodka)
How'd we get to 25 years?
Sure, we make smooth vodka. But it's because of folks like you who told our story, and never stopped telling it. The folks who keep Tito's on their bar cart and call our limited-edition 25th anniversary bottle a collector's item. Who order a Tito's Soda Lime at happy hour. And who sip Tito's cocktails for moments worth celebrating.
We couldn't have done it without you. So, raise a glass.
Here’s to our hometown. This one’s for you, Austin.
Cheers,
Tito's