Badgers in Tokyo: Kelsey Harshman and Team Canada win softball bronze medal

There are 16 current or former Wisconsin Badgers in Tokyo for the 2020 Summer Olympics which, you know, are taking place in 2021. UWBadgers.com has a great master schedule and bios of all the UW Olympians right here, but we’ve collected a couple of the highlights for you because we love you and don’t want you to spend more time than necessary looking for this stuff.

• Former Wisconsin softball standout 2B Kelsey (Jenkins) Harshman came up clutch for Canada in the bronze medal game by knocking in the winning run in the bottom of the fifth inning against Mexico with a sacrifice fly.

Harshman played stellar defense in the middle of the infield all tournament while struggling a bit at the plate. She went 4-for-18 (.222) at the dish while knocking in two runs and scoring three of her own. Harshman is the first Badger to earn a medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics and it marks the 32nd time a Badger athlete has earned a medal at a Summer Games.

“I think all of Badger nation was staying up late tonight watching KJ and Team Canada chase history, medaling for the first time,” UW head coach Yvette Healy said. “We are so proud of Kelsey’s clutch, competitive fire!”

• Wisconsin legend Rose Lavelle is participating in her first Olympics. Already an American World Cup hero, Lavelle is on her way to adding “Olympic Hero” to her resume.

The Americans made the knockout round of the tournament despite some, frankly, uninspiring play throughout the group stage. In their opening game, the USWNT got their doors blown off by Sweden, losing 3-0. In the next game, the one in which Lavelle scored, the Americans dominated New Zealand 6-1 and then in the final match played Australia to a cynical 0-0 draw where they never looked to keen on attacking.

On Friday morning at 6 a.m. CT, the USWNT plays Netherlands in the quarterfinals with the winner taking on the winner taking on the winner of Canada vs. Brazil in the semifinals on August 2.

Photo by Brad Smith/ISI Photos/Getty Images

• Former UW women’s hoops player Rae Lin D’Alie made the Italian 3x3 team and is the first Wisconsin basketball player to make the Olympics. D’Alie and Italy lost to China in the quarterfinals, 19-13, but D’Alie led the Italians with five points

Italy only won two games in pool play, but D’Alie acquitted herself nicely, especially in their win over Romania where she scored 13 points, only one fewer than the Romanians scored as a team, while nailing all five of her two point attempts.

Many of the Wisconsin athletes in the Olympics are track and field participants and that gets started on Friday, so we should hopefully have more medal updates over the weekend.