My Medal Moment: Jennifer Brundage
7/9/2008 12:00:00 AM | Softball, Features, Olympics
Jennifer Brundage, who in 2024 completed her 26th season as an assistant coach -- and first as associate head coach -- for the Michigan softball program, helped Team USA to the gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. During the 10-game schedule, Brundage posted a team-high .281 batting average (9 for 32) with two home runs, three runs batted in, and four runs scored. Note: This feature originally ran in conjunction with the 2008Â Beijing Games.
Softball made its Olympic debut in 1996, the same year I made my national team debut. When I went to the Olympic selection camp, I didn't care if I was in the top 15 that actually got to be on the field in Atlanta or if I was one of the five alternates. I just wanted to be one of those 20 women named to the squad. After several days of intense games and workouts, I made the team as an alternate. I was able to gain some great experience wearing the red, white and blue, as I played in several games throughout our pre-Olympics nationwide tour. One of the most valuable lessons of that tour for me was how to handle the expectations that go with playing for the best softball team in the world and how to stay focused and play my game regardless of the uniform I was wearing. Although I was not able to be on the field in Atlanta, I felt like more than a spectator, and I knew exactly what to expect in Sydney in 2000.
After another four years of seemingly endless practices and conditioning, my goals were a lot different when the 2000 Olympic team was selected. I wanted to make the team of 15 that would be on the field, and anything less would have been extremely disappointing. I was ecstatic to learn that I had made that squad of 15, and as our pre-Olympics tour progressed I became our everyday third baseman and hit fifth in the order. My experience in Atlanta prepared me for the environment in Sydney, so I was not intimidated at all when we got there. Instead, I was very proud to be representing my country competing at the highest level one can achieve in softball and ready to do whatever our team needed to win that gold medal.
The United States' softball team has been ranked No. 1 in the world for decades, and every year it has been the Olympic favorite. 2000 was certainly no exception. So I don't necessarily think there was more pressure on us than any other international competition, but there was a certain weight that we carried knowing that we were the No. 1 team in the world. There is always a little bit of a burden when you're the top dog and everyone else is gunning for you. You're going to get every team's best game. I liked being in that role, and I think we relished that challenge.
But I don't think we were as prepared mentally going into the Games as we could have been. It showed in how we played. We lost three straight games early on in round-robin play. Losing one game was shocking, but losing three was unheard of for us, as we hadn't lost in the previous 112 games, and I don't think we handled it very well. Fortunately, after the third loss and a very productive players-only meeting following that loss, we were able to regroup mentally and play well enough to win every game after that. We only needed five wins in a row to win the gold medal, which didn't seem so daunting after winning 112 straight.
After that third loss, our next game was against New Zealand, and it was a must-win game for us or else we wouldn't advance to the medal rounds. We won that game 2-0, and the next day we beat Italy 6-0 to wrap up pool play. We entered the medal rounds as the No. 4 seed (only four teams advanced to the medal rounds) and we had to beat every one of the teams that had previously beaten us. We considered it to be our revenge tour, and this mindset really helped us as we were ready to just go out there and compete and find a way to win, no matter what. We had lost that edge earlier in the tournament, but we had it back and even though we weren't hitting very well as a team, we were determined and we were competing every pitch of the game.
We had some amazing hitters on that team, but we went cold in Sydney. The most powerful lineup in the world was being shut down. We won because our pitching and defense kept us in every game until our offense was able to scrape some hits together to score. It truly was a team effort, with different people getting the big hits every game. My game was the New Zealand game, when I had three hits, including a home run to lead off the second inning, in a 2-0 win.
In our first game of the revenge tour against China, our catcher, Stacey Nuveman, hit a walk-off shot to win it. That win was huge, as it assured us a spot on the podium. But we weren't ready to settle for a bronze medal. The next game was against the hometown favorite, Australia. Clutch hits by Dot Richardson and Leah O'Brien-Amico, as well as superb pitching by Lisa Fernandez and great cheerleading by the U.S. Women's Soccer Team, led us to victory and into the gold medal game.
In that game against Japan, we were losing 1-0 in the fifth inning when Stacey Nuveman hit one off the centerfield fence to tie it up. It stayed tied until the bottom of the eighth inning, and a light mist had begun to fall. Two walks had given us runners on first and second with one out when Laura Berg popped one up just over the leftfielder's head. The leftfielder didn't take a very good path to the ball and was backpedaling on it. I thought she still might make the catch, but the ball popped out of her glove and she slipped on the wet grass. Jen McFalls was the runner on second base, and she had a great read on the ball and sprinted home to score the winning run. When I saw that ball pop out and McFalls cross the plate, I can't remember ever being more excited about anything. In a rush of jubilation, we mobbed Jen at the plate and then tackled Laura in the middle of the field.
Oblivious to the fact that it was now raining hard, we stayed on the field celebrating for a long time before going down into the locker room to change into our warmups for the medal ceremony. I remember every moment of that ceremony as if it just happened. It was better than I had ever dreamt it could be. To this day, every time I hear our anthem played, I take a moment to remember our time on the podium and to remember how fortunate I am to have lived my dream.
