Taylah Tsitsikronis

Fast Facts

Sport: Softball
Olympic History: Tokyo 2020
Year Born: 1994
State Born: NSW

About Taylah

Taylah Tsitsikronis began playing softball at the age of six at the Penrith Softball Club after her parents wanted her to put her energy into a sport. In 2015, she turned to professional softball. She realised her Olympic dream when attending a baseball match during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games when she caught a foul ball. 

She is a recipient of the New South Wales Institute of Sport Scholarship, which was launched in partnership with Softball Australia and NSW Softball.

Taylah plays positions of catcher and first-base with both the Australian Softball Team and the New South Wales Firestarters. 

In 2018, Taylah was selected to play in the National Pro Fastpitch league in the United States with the Aussie Peppers Team under the tutelage of coach Laing Harrow. 

She would assist Australia in gaining a spot on the Tokyo Olympic field after qualifying through the Softball Asia/Oceania Qualifiers in 2019. 

Off the pitch, Taylah is a student of a Bachelor of Policing Practices and Criminal Justice at Western Sydney University. 

Tsitsikronis would make her Olympic debut at the Tokyo 2020 games, competing alongside the women's softball team. Australia would face a first-round matchup against Japan, now not only the past Olympic champions but also the hosts of the event. In their opening fixture, the Aussies would fall to Japan (8)-(1) a rough loss to the hosts, who would go on to win consecutive Gold medals. 

Australia would bounce back in their second fixture of the games, Taylah scoring the sole run as the Spirit held Italy (1) - (0).  They would not, however, continue this run of form, later falling to eventual bronze medalists in Canada.

This would set up a must-win match against the United States, one of the strongest teams competing in the discipline. Australia would fall agonisingly close to a result against the US, in a fixture that would remain scoreless for 7 innings and required to go into extras. The United States would ultimately edge out the match, winning (2) - (1). 

In their final game, Australia would play Mexico for a place in the bronze medal match. The team would, unfortunately, fail to qualify for their third medal consecutive medal matchup, losing the match (4) - (1).