Australia's women's softball team are ramping up their preparations for the sport's Olympic comeback in 2020, by becoming semi-professional and temporarily basing themselves in the United States.
Softball, which was on the Olympic roster from 1966-2008, returns to the Games in Tokyo, after being left out in 2012 and 2016.
Australia, who are currently fourth in the world rankings, won a medal in each of the four Olympics the sport was contested, earning three bronze and a silver.
Underpinned by AIS funding, the Aussie Spirit will relocate to the United States for three months and will compete in the National Pro Fastpitch, widely considered one of the world's leading competitions.
"This is a game-changer for Australian women's softball," Softball Australia CEO Chet Gray said.
"This plan exposes our players to consistent international standard training and competition that we realistically couldn't achieve here in Australia.
"The squad of up to 20 players will train and compete together over a 50-game schedule in three months against some of the best players in the world.
"It will be an intensive training environment from May to July before the 2018 World Championship in August (in Chiba, Japan), which may also double as an Olympic qualifier."
The Aussie Spirit players will be based at Missouri Western University.
They will play "home" games at various stadiums in Missouri and surrounding states.
"It gives us some high-level competition and training in a professional environment, which will help us prepare for the world championship,' Spirit head coach Fabian Barlow said.
"The standard of play is very high, with some of the best players in the world competing, so we couldn't ask for a better preparation."
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