Her Olympic experience at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta was a bit disappointing from a team standpoint, but the years that have since passed have helped Kara McGaw put her superb softball career in perspective.

A solid hitter and starting right fielder for Canada’s national women’s team for six years, the 43-year-old McGaw saved the game of her life for the powerhouse U.S. side that went on to win the gold medal in Atlanta, going 3-for-3 at the plate while recording 11 putouts and no errors in the field.

Canada ended up fifth overall after starting the tournament 2-0, with a couple of close losses denying McGaw and her teammates a shot at a medal.

“I never dreamed that when I started playing Kinsmen Girls’ Softball in Georgetown at age 10 that 20 years later I’d be sort of a pioneer, being in Atlanta the first year that softball was an Olympic sport,” said the human resources manager at Wal-Mart’s flagship Mississauga location.

She earned a scholarship to Western Illinois in 1986 to take business administration after multiple provincial and national titles at the youth levels with teams from Chinguacousy and Pickering. Two more national championships followed in the mid 1990s with Dorchester, in which McGaw earned top batter and all-Canadian outfielder honours.