is a Japanese,
(in Japanese). ''Japan Softball League''. Retrieved July 31, 2021. medal-winning Olympian, professional right-handed

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

pitcher for Bic Camera Takasaki Bee Queen and the Japanese national team, who holds a bronze and two gold medals from the 2004, 2008 and 2020

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

, respectively. She became the first pitcher ever to throw a

perfect game Perfect game may refer to: Sports * Perfect game (baseball), a complete-game win by a pitcher allowing no baserunners * Perfect game (bowling), a 300 game, 12 consecutive strikes in the same game * Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League, New York ...

at the Olympics, against China in Athens. With a fastball that tops out at 128 km/h (80 mph), she is widely recognized as the fastest pitcher in women's softball, although her signature pitch is her change-up, which is often cited as the best in the world.

Career

2006

In 2006, World Women's Softball Championship in Beijing, she shut out the U.S. team in the semifinal, but lost the final against the same U.S. team.

Perseverance at the 2008 Olympics

In the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

, she again lost to the U.S. in the playoff allowing four runs in the tiebreak ninth inning, after shutting out the opponent until the previous inning. Yet, she won the final against the same U.S. by pitching her fifth complete game, allowing only one run in seven innings. She threw over 600 pitches at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics in 4 days (413 in the last two days during which she completed three games, two of which went extra innings). During the semi-final and final games of the softball event, which lasted for two days and included three games, Ueno pitched 28 innings against the United States and Australia, considered the two best lineups in the world.

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

commentator

Rob Baird Rob Baird is an Americana and country music singer-songwriter, producer, and musician from Memphis, Tennessee. He released his debut album, ''Blue Eyed Angels'' (Carnival Recording Company), in 2010 and his sophomore effort, ''I Swear It's the ...

described Ueno's feat as "one of the most amazing pitching performances in recent memory."

2020 Olympics

Ueno again joined Team Japan at the postponed 2020 Olympics in 2021. She went 2-0 for the team, allowing three earned runs, 13 hits, 6 walks and struck out 26 batters for a 0.95 ERA and 0.86 WHIP. She pitched 6 innings against the US in the gold medal game, along with teammate Miu Goto to shutout the Americans 2–0 on July 27, 2021. She became the first non-American pitcher to win and hold two gold medals in the Olympics for softball.

Popular culture

The pronunciation of Ueno's surname was brought to the attention of comedy duo

Hamish & Andy Hamish & Andy are an Australian comedy duo formed in 2003 by Hamish Blake and Andy Lee. Best known for their various drive time radio programmes on the Hit Network, which aired in multiple formats until 2017, their shows gained consistently h ...

during the Olympics. This was due to the name being very similar to a stereotypical Australian or

Strine Strine, also spelled Stryne , describes a broad accent of Australian English. The term is a syncope, derived from a shortened phonetic rendition of the pronunciation of the word "Australian" in an exaggerated Broad Australian accent, drawing upon ...

nickname for Wayne, 'Wayno'. It also is pronounced exactly the same way to national baseball pitcher,

Wayne Ough Wayne Ough (born 27 November 1978) is an Australian former professional baseball pitcher who also competed in the Olympics. Listed at and , he threw and batted right-handed. Drafted by the New York Mets in the 15th round of the 2000 Major ...

. The segment was included on their compilation album '' Unessential Listening''.

Notes

External links