JIM DIEHL/Standard Journal Joey Lye poses with her bronze medal from the 2021 Tokyo Olympic games. Lye, who competed with the Canadian softball team, currently lives in Lewisburg.

LEWISBURG — An Olympian now living in Lewisburg experienced a huge weight being lifted from her shoulders as a bronze medal was placed around her neck during the 2021 Tokyo Olympic games.

Joey Lye was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and grew up in Scarborough with her parents, Jim and Kathy, and sister Heather. She won a bronze medal as part of the Canadian softball team.

“I’ve always had dreams of becoming a professional athlete and in high school actually had written a letter to myself and addressed it to ‘The Future Olympian,'” Lye said.

Following her collegiate career, Lye tried out for Team Canada Softball and made it to the final selection camp, where she was one of the last cuts. After working hard to improve, Lye made the Olympic team in 2010, serving as captain from 2013 to 2017.

The lowest point of her athletic career came during the one-year delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic and not knowing if she would be able to play in her first Olympic games, scheduled for Tokyo in 2020, at the height of the pandemic.

“The uncertainty and doubt that lived in the back of my mind, wondering if it was the right move to step away from a stable job coaching to follow my dream, and if that dream would ever come true,” Lye explained.

“Our team did an amazing job staying in touch during the 10-month pandemic hiatus,” Lye said. “The team came back stronger and better after the 10 months of being away from each other.”

The 2020 Olympic games were ultimately contested in 2021. Lye rounded out her 12-year playing career by returning from Tokyo with an Olympic Bronze medal, the first medal ever for Canada in softball.

“There are no words to describe that moment,” Lye said, of winning an Olympic medal. “The officials were not allowed to put the medals around our necks (due to COVID) so we as a team had to place them on each other.

“There were no fans in the stands to cheer for us, but it didn’t matter,” she continued. “The 15 of us were so in the moment. I often get asked if the weight of the medal outweighed the weight of the moment, but the emotional weight at the moment was the only thing we felt.”

Her path to the Olympics started at an early age.

Around the age of 7, house-league sports came into the picture, starting with softball, and hockey followed not too far behind. Lye, her sister and her cousins were also part of a curling club and took swimming lessons. Soccer entered the picture in grade four, when Lye played for the boys team. She also competed for her school in track and field.

By middle school, Lye was playing boys hockey and softball, while also competing in numerous sports for her school, including volleyball, soccer, track and field and cross country.

At an early age, she was accepted to the Birchmount Exceptional Athlete Program at Birchmount Park Collegian Institute in Scarborough. As a replacement for regular gym class, she learned the intricacies of training in the weight room, on the track, and in the pool, as well as strategies for improved nutrition and a basic understanding of the human body.

Throughout high school, she represented Birchmount on the ice, the ball field, the soccer field, and the field hockey field, while also playing on competitive travel softball and hockey teams.

Lye worked hard in the classroom and was accepted to a top-ranked liberal arts school, Williams College in Massachusetts.

While at Williams College she played both ice hockey and softball. There, she broke numerous school records on the softball field, including single-season batting average, hitting .563 to lead the nation her senior season.

An all-American on the field and all-conference on the ice, Lye was co-captain the hockey squad her senior year.

Also while at Williams College, Lye started coaching softball and ice hockey and really started to focus on her softball career. She trained extensively from 2010 through 2020.

“There were days I would get home from a collegiate game at 11 at night only to go to the gym and workout some more,,” Lye said.

After a hiatus from her studies, Lye pursued online graduate school with Concordia University, Irvine, through which she achieved a master’s in Coaching and Athletic Administration.

In 2017, Lye became head softball coach at Bucknell University, and in 2019 won the Patriot League Coach of the Year award.

Shortly after returning from Tokyo, Lye headed to Rosemont, Ill., to be the lead facilitator for season two of Athletes Unlimited Softball.

Currently, she is in the coaching pool for the Canadian National Softball Team and assisted the team for portions of the 2022 season. She is the national director of fielding at Area Scouts and is excited to help grow both softball and girls hockey on the platform while impacting those youth athletes around North America.

Lye has been following the Canadian softball team in Guatemala, preparing for the Pan-American qualifier.

“It’s really fun to see some of the players that were younger now in leadership roles,” she said. “It’s fun to see them step up to the plate literally in preparing for their first international season. It also causes me to reflect on all the travels and opportunities I’ve had over the past 12 years as a player.”

Lye is also focused on sharing her story, inspiring leaders and making an impact in the world. She’s in the early stages of launching a business.

“I find a lot of joy in figuring out how to help businesses go from good to great,” she said. “My expertise lies in mindset, culture, and leadership. For me, success in business and sports is set in the culture of the group and how individuals come together with their strengths and communicate together.”

She describes her business as featuring “a team of one.”

“I’ve been relying on my new network and learn as much as I can about the business world,” Lye said. “I’ve been extremely busy during the month of October, which gave me the opportunities to connect.”

She is now taking a step back, and learning more about marketing and business aspects while looking for more opportunities to share.

“I would love to create an impactful business that allows me to empower local businesses and teams for years to come,” said Lye.

For more information on Lye, or to book her for a speaking engagement, visit joey-lye.com.

Lye and her wife, Baillie, were married in Indianapolis, Ind., in 2015. Together, they have two dogs — a golden chow named Maddie and a shepherd mix named Grizz, and live in Lewisburg.