Dot Richardson

As captain of the United States softball team that won gold in the 1996 Atlanta Games, Dot Richardson hit the first home run in Olympic softball history. And she was there again as the United States triumphed over Japan in a dramatic 2-1 victory at the Sydney 2000 Olympics to win its second straight Olympic gold medal in softball.

The dominant team at the 1996 Atlanta Games and owner of a 119-game international winning streak heading into Sydney, they struggled terribly just to reach the final. Definitely, the [gold medal] in 1996 was incredible because it was the first ever, teammate Lisa Fernandez said. But this one somewhat surpasses it with what we had to overcome.

Richardson, who turned 39 during the Sydney Games, was the oldest softball player on the 2000 Olympic Team, as she was in 1996.

She also is the only doctor. A graduate of the University of Louisville Medical School, her illustrious career on the United States national team began in 1979 as a 17-year-old starter for the team that won gold at the Pan American Games. Twenty years later, Richardson helped the United States team to another gold medal in the 1999 Pan American Games.

Richardson took a one-year leave from her orthopedic surgery residency at the University of Southern California to compete at the Atlanta Games. One day after the gold medal victory, she was back at USC, from which she completed her five-year residency on June 18, 1999. Subsequently, Richardson began a one-year fellowship at the renowned Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic Clinic in Los Angeles, where she has worked with pro-athletes from the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, L.A. Lakers and L.A. Dodgers. In June 2002, she was named vice chair of the Presidents Council on Physical Fitness and Sports by President Bush, and is the proud recipient of the 2002 Flo Hyman Award, one of the most prestigious honors in the world of sports. Richardson is the author of two books, Go For It! Conversations On Being You (September 2004) and Living The Dream (June 1997).

Richardson knows what it takes to break ground, get out of a comfort zone and win. Possessing a passion for softball during a time when women's sports were limited, she broke down barriers and never allowed anyone to confine her just because she was a girl.

Richardson considers her greatest moment in sports to be hitting the game-winning homerun to win the gold medal in the 1996 Olympic Games, the year softball debuted.

Richardson is currently the director and medical director of The National Training Center in Orlando, Florida, a state of the art facility where local residents, national and international athletes of all levels will have the opportunity to meet their athletic as well as quality of life goals. The National Training Center is the only facility in the United States that has a fully staffed hospital (South Lake Hospital), an educational institution (University of Central Florida) and state-of-the-art training facility all on the same campus.