1. Olympian Dot Richardson
Answers My ten questions
by Gary Leland
Presented by

2. 1. How old were you when you started playing
softball?
I was 10 years old when I started playing softball because I was playing catch
with my brother one day and a little league coach saw me throw, came over and
asked me to play on his team. He said I would have to disguise myself as a boy
and call me “Bob”. As much as I wanted it, I said, “Sir, thank you but no thank you if
I have to hide who I am then I don’t want to play”. I walked over to another field
and was playing catch with a friend of mine when a fastpitch softball coach came
over. She brought me onto the field and gave me a few ground balls, then asked if
I wanted to play for her team, the Union Park Jets. The average age of that team
was 22 and I was only 10, but my parents said yes, so that’s when my fastpitch
softball career started.

3. 2. Was there anyone special in your life that
helped you become a great player?
There is always someone special in my life, first and foremost is my Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. I could see Him working in my life from a young age,
feeling the Holy Spirit and the joy of life. Through my mom and my dad I saw
what it was like to serve others. I felt that God had given me a gift in athletics
because it always felt so natural and I felt so alive doing it, whether it was
bouncing, kicking, hitting, or diving for a ball, just feeling alive in what you do.
When you feel that passion, you know it’s a God given gift and be ready to
seize those opportunities. The influence I have had from Him and my parents is
something that I always take with me in everything I do.

4. 3. How did you get ready for a game?
I get ready for a game first mentally. Mentally be
able to visualize it and to feel it within my body to
become one with the ball. Visualize moving faster
than I did the last time, being able to see the ball off
the barrel of my bat and feel what that feels like.
Then in preparation on the field, as soon as I put my
cleats on I am in a whole other world; nothing else
exists except for being one with that ball.

5. 4. What do you like to do when you are not
involved with softball?
When I am not involved with softball, I like to influence the lives of
others as much as I can in positive ways. If I have a chance to speak to
others to give motivation, hopefully inspiration but obviously as a physician to
impact the lives of those in the health care field, to be able to be the
executive director of a national training center to open opportunities, to have
a not for profit with FPX athletics, to impact young girls and women in sport,
to serve under Former President George Bush as vice chair in the
president’s council of physical fitness and sport, to be able to live life to the
fullest and let everyone know how special they are because they are an
amazing gift to the world.

6. 5. What factors do you feel have influenced you
the most to become the player and you are
today?
Without a doubt my belief in God the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. Realizing that we are on
Earth for a short time in this eternity and what we
need to do is to show Him in all that we say and do. I
take that with me and try to use it in learning the life
lessons He has meant for me to learn.

7. 6. Do you have any routines are superstitions
that you implement regularly?
More routines than superstitions. I always put my left shoe on
first, maybe just because it felt more natural. I would double tie the
bow in my shoelace because I tripped on it when I was really young.
There were times when I played in tournaments and ate peanut
butter cookies before the game and felt awesome on the field so I
kept that routine around. Really I just feel that since being a young
girl denied me the chance to play sport drove me to seize the
moment and any chance I have to play to the fullest and be all in.

8. 7. What is your favorite softball memory?
I have several favorite softball memories. First and foremost was
after winning the 1996 Olympic Gold Medal. In celebration we were all
on the field and there were security guards preventing anyone from
getting on the field. I remember looking up and reaching out to the fans
and I saw a boy and a girl standing together trying to reach over the
railings to share in the Olympic gold medal moment. It hit me that
these Olympic Games in ’96 was a moment that I felt that the world
started recognizing the gifts that God had given each and every athlete
no matter what gender they are. That boys and girls and men and
women alike can enjoy athletic talent no matter whether it is
participated by a girl or a woman or a boy or a man.

9. 8. How much value do you place on mental
training? Do you have any advice for others in
this area?
I place an extreme amount of value on the mental part of the game. People throw
that around to say “mental toughness” but the reality is can you mentally put yourself in a
state where you can visualize it to the point where when you execute it, you can feel like
you are living the dream, that you have been there before, almost like a déjà vu. It’s a talent
to do that. When I talk to young players and ask them if they can visualize it, they can’t and
you need to. For all of those reading, you need to be able to visualize in your life where you
see yourself going, what you want to experience, how you want to see that plan of action
be, and trust that God is going to have you in your life prosper, then you will feel like you
are living the dream . I actually wrote a book called “Living the Dream”, and it was really
about that, to be able to visualize it and to dream about it and believe it to the point where
you achieve it.

10. 9. What is the greatest obstacle you have had to
overcome in your playing and/or coaching
career?
The greatest obstacle in my life, without a doubt, is that girls were denied the
opportunity to play sport when I was a young girl, just dreaming about the
opportunity to be able to express what God has given me on the field. Looking out
and seeing boys being allowed to play and girls were not. The boys had no problem
with me, in fact they picked me first for their pick up teams after school. Society
made it a rule that girls could not play. When Title IX came into effect in 1972, it was
an amendment to the constitution giving us all the opportunity regardless of race or
gender, that anyone could have the opportunity to express their gifts. There was a
huge change in girls and women in sport from then all the way to today and it has
been spectacular. I have been very blessed to be a part of that evolution.

11. 10. If you could do anything else in the world as
a profession, what would it be and why?
I have been very blessed in my life to have a number of careers.
Everything from being one of the elite athletes in the world achieving the
Olympic gold moments, to the NCAA Player of the Decade for the 1980’s
and a NCAA champion in sport, to becoming a physician (I’m an
orthopedic surgeon), to be able to experience the fun of playing golf as an
athlete, and to be able to now be a head coach, to be on boards like the
FPX athletic board, to impact the girls and women in sport, to be on the
board of the Fellowship of Christian Athlete softball ministry. I just think that
as much as we can do to make a difference it the world for the time that
we are here, we need to do it and love every minute of it.

12. Thanks For Reading
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