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Sports

Olympian Natasha Watley Shares Her Run of Good Luck, Hard Work

The star softball shortstop hosts a 5K run at Woodley Park to empower young girls.

Never content to rest on her phenomenal success as an Olympic champion, softball player Natasha Watley remains active as a coach and mentor in the sport. She aims to help shape the lives of young girls in the Valley by giving them someone they can look up to and, perhaps, emulate.

On Saturday at Woodley Park in Encino, the Natasha Watley Foundation held its second annual 5K event to raise money to support girls softball throughout Los Angeles.

“This event is bringing a combination of running and softball to young girls in the inner cities,” said Watley. "It's blending the two sports to promote having a healthy lifestyle. I started my foundation two years ago, and we partnered with the City of L.A. We have about 12 different recreation centers that compete in softball, and events like this help fund it.”

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Watley is a two-time Olympic medalist in women's softball, winning gold in 2004 and silver in 2008, plus a three-time World Cup champion and a four-time All-American shortstop at UCLA.

One of the things that inspired Watley to create her foundation in 2009 was a lack of women sports role models when she was growing up in Canoga Park.

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“Growing up, I would love to have had someone who looked like me to look up to, "she said. "I looked up to a lot of men, a lot of male baseball players and other athletes, and not that that’s a problem or anything, but there wasn’t a female who looked like me and was doing the same thing that I was doing.”

The mission of her foundation is to empower young women to make healthy lifestyle choices, develop strong self esteem and character through participation and training softball. 

Of course, to pull off an event of this nature requires a lot of effort by a lot of people. So, in addition to her sponsors and a number of volunteers, Watley brought along a few friends, including Amanda Freed (2004 US Olympic softball team), Tairia Flowers (2008 US Olympic softball team) and Ruby Rojas (2008 Venezuelan Olympic softball team). And, to get the day off to the right start, Natasha enlisted the voice of singer, actress and “close family friend,” Nita Whitaker Lafontaine to perform the national anthem.

“I want to thank the city of L.A. and all of our great sponsors” said Watley to those who attended the event. “This is awesome.”

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