Olympian Cat Osterman and Her Husband Have the Most Adorable Love Story

Jul. 26 2021, Published 3:36 p.m. ET

Softball is again at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, after being dropped following the 2008 Games because of a lack of popularity. The International Olympics Committee introduced in 2016 that the game would be making its way back to the spotlight for the Tokyo Games, given how celebrated softball is in the host nation of Japan.

But softball isn't alone in making its return to the big games. Two-time Olympic medalist Cat Osterman (aka Catherine Leigh Osterman) will probably be again on the pitch, taking part in for the first time on the Olympic degree since the game used to be put on the again burner.

New and seasoned fans alike are curious to learn more about the gifted athlete. Keep studying for everything you want to understand.

Cat Osterman is considered considered one of the biggest pitchers of all time.

Born in Houston in 1983, Cat had her first foray into sports by way of basketball, as Newsweek studies. She admitted via social media that the sport used to be her "first love."

"I was going to play in WNBA, but then pitching stole my heart, and my dreams were changed," she wrote on Instagram in April 2019.

"At 11, I asked for pitching lessons for my birthday present. When I told my dad pitching was what I wanted to do, the man made our driveway my pitching haven," she recalled. "After denting the garage, he found tarps to cover it ... When I got into [junior high] and sports made us have to pitch at night, he installed flood lights to allow us to see."

All the observe paid off for the left-handed three-time National Player of the Year who pitched for the nationwide team from 2001 to 2010 and stood along Team USA after they took house the gold at the 2004 Games and finished in second position in 2008. 

After her 10-year occupation with the USA National Team, Cat retired from playing professionally in 2015 and was once in reality coaching at Texas State University when she heard the news that softball could be returning to the Olympics. She got here out of retirement to be a part of the Games, in keeping with Newsweek. The outlet also notes that the recreation is not going to return for Paris 2024, that means that Tokyo may very well be Cat's swan song.

Cat has an "extremely supportive" husband and stepdaughter.

When it was introduced in 2018 that softball would return for the Tokyo Games, Cat laced up her cleats once once more. "The more I thought about it, I thought I could still throw at an elite level," she printed to People in 2021. "I thought I should un-retire and come back and help this younger generation make a run at a gold medal."

Part of Cat's motivation needed to do with how issues ended the ultimate time she used to be on the Olympic stage: The USA had misplaced to Japan in 2008, finishing the games with a silver – fairly than a gold – medal.

But the COVID-19 pandemic, and the one-year extend it led to for the Olympics, put a wrench in Cat's training. "The only thing you could do during quarantine was work out, so I was almost overdoing it," she also advised People, explaining that she needed to "re-gauge and reorganize" her regimen. "My husband and I had already talked about it, and he was like, 'You're going to do what you got to do. You're going to keep going for this.' Him and my stepdaughter are extremely supportive," she said.

Cat lives together with her husband, Joey Ashley, and his daughter, Bracken, in San Antonio. Like Cat, Joey is an athlete himself; he works as an assistant coach to the Texas State males's golf program and in the past spent over a decade coaching highschool golf.

And although they simply tied the knot in September 2016, it seems these two had in the past dated in school, breaking apart after graduation because of Cat's softball career commencing. "Four years ago today, he invited me to 'go out with him and some friends,'" the softball professional captioned an Instagram post in November 2018, commemorating their anniversary. 

"This was 9+ years after I broke up with him once college was over and my softball career awaited me," she continued. "I drove down to San Antonio to go out with him and 1 friend! I can't say I was disappointed because the second I saw him, my heart raced and I knew this was it .... 11 months later, we were engaged .... and he is my happily ever after."

Cat told People that when the Summer Games, she's planning on completing her career with Athletes Unlimited, then returning to Austin and dealing part-time for RBI Austin, which supplies underserved communities the alternative to play baseball and softball.

Outside of baseball, she also got her actual property license. Perhaps she'll start operating in conjunction with her husband, who also works as a realtor?

Good luck to Cat! We can not wait to peer what she does next.

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