In a town where nothing is impossible, Las Vegas resident and Bellagio employee Lori Harrigan serves as a shining example that no dream is too big. The senior member of the victorious 2004 Olympic women’s softball team, Harrigan, 34, rewrote the record books as a pitcher at UNLV and then went on to become one of just four women to play on all three Olympic champion teams since softball became a medal sport in 1996. Following a month in Athens, capped by an epic tournament (the American squad outscored their opponents by a combined score of 51-1) and an emotional turn atop the medal stand, I talked with Harrigan the day after she arrived home. Admittedly still riding an adrenaline high, the only thing keeping her head out of the clouds and her feet on the ground was the hunk of gold around her neck.

You’ve won back-to-back-to-back gold medals. Are you eyeing a run at a fourth in Beijing come 2008?
Actually, I announced my retirement after the games. I wanted to go out on a high note and on my terms, and what better way to go!

How fast have you been clocked on the radar gun?
Sixty-five to 70 m.p.h., which is equivalent to throwing a baseball about 95 – 100 m.p.h. because a baseball pitcher’s mound is 60 feet from home plate and in softball ours is just 43 feet. In Athens, LeBron James wanted to bet that he could get a hit off me. I said I’d bet my Nike contract against his and that pretty much ended that.