LAWRIE Danielle

General
RETIREMENT AND COMEBACK
She retired soon after giving birth to her first child, but returned to softball in 2017 after the sport was restored to the Olympic programme. After the postponement of the 2020 Games, she admitted to having second thoughts about the sport, but decided to continue. "When they made the decision to postpone the Olympics, I didn't know if I wanted to do it again, because it's another year's sacrifice. It's time away [from family], nannies and a lot of things people don't understand. [But] at the end of the day, it was about me realising that I had set this goal, and thinking what that would look like in ten years to my daughters if I didn't do it because it was too hard? So that's what made me realise, that one day they will respect the crap out of this and truly remember and know the work that was put in to get me there." (Softball Canada Youtube Channel, 20 May 2020; peacearchnews.com, 10 May 2018; softballamerica.com, 26 Jun 2019)

BEIJING 2008 VETERAN
She competed at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the last time softball featured on the Olympic programme. "I had a lot of bad emotions based on that 2008 [Olympic] experience. I was probably not as good a teammate as I should have been. Sometimes in sport that's how it works out. You don't always get the good stuff, you don't always get the medals, and I was devastated losing that opportunity to win [a medal] in 2008. But I was challenged, I had to work harder, I had to learn new things. Mentally, I knew I had to get better, and I literally worked my tail off with sports psychologists. The big light at the end of the tunnel is I want to try and get a medal at the 2020 Olympics with my family in the stands. There are so many moments when stuff with softball gets really hard and my girls are what I think about. When I was playing before I had my daughters, my family wasn't really on my mind when things got hard. Now, I always think about my kids and the sacrifices I'm making." (olympics.nbcsports.com, 15 May 2018; langleyadvancetimes.com, 10 May 2018; seattletimes.com, 12 May 2018; peacearchnews.com, 10 May 2018; wbsc.org, 20 May 2020)

LIVING IN THE UNITED STATES
Her daughters were born in the United States of America, where she lives with her US husband, but she has not entertained the idea of acquiring US citizenship. "I am Canadian through and through. Part of me doesn't want to become a [US] citizen, because I'm so passionate about Canada. At the last Olympic Games [in 2008], just getting to represent them and seeing how much fun we had, I want to win a medal for our country [in 2020]." (softballamerica.com, 26 Jun 2019; king5.com, 14 Jan 2020; peacearchnews.com, 10 May 2018)

OTHER ACTIVITIES
She has worked as broadcaster, covering women's softball matches on television. (auprosports.com, 14 Aug 2020)

She and her brother Brett were one of two sets of brother-sister siblings competing in softball and baseball at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. The other pair were Dutch softballer Judith van Kampen and her brother Michiel van Kampen. (wbsc.org, 20 May 2020)