Leah Parry completed a remarkable comeback to softball to stand on the verge of an Olympic swansong that for many years appeared impossible.

The 39-year-old narrowly missed selection for the 2008 Games as the last player omitted from the extended squad, and her Olympic dream appeared quashed when the sport was axed from the London (2012) and Rio (2016) schedules.

Parry played on to the 2010 World Cup, before taking time away from the sport to have her first son, now-eight-year-old Austin, who has since been joined in the family by one-year-old brother Tom.

The mother-of-two returned to club softball in October 2018 and had lost little in her time away, earning her first national selection in six years when she was named for January 2019's Asia Pacific Cup, before helping Australia defeat China to clinch the final Games spot at September's Olympic qualifier.

Parry and her family have made many sacrifices as they juggle the challenges of a pursuing a high performance dream with raising a young family and the Wally Foreman Foundation's support will assist her and her husband with the costs of childcare as she travels for qualifying and competition requirements.