37-year-old mum Jess Johnson debuts for Australia's national baseball team, the Emeralds

For professional athletes, time is rarely on your side.

The greater your vintage, the narrower your prospects tend to become.

In many national and international sporting arenas, stories of debuts of people in their twenties are unusual.

Debuting in your thirties, even more so.

Yet one woman has defied the odds, becoming a 37-year-old rookie in a national squad.

And she has done it while also recently becoming a mum.

Becoming an Emerald

Jess Johnson has been selected as a right-handed pitcher for the Emeralds, Australia's women's national baseball team.

She is the oldest member of the team of 20, which also includes at least two players more than half her age.

Now working as a graphic designer and screen-printer, Johnson has played baseball since she was very young.

She grew up in Victoria's north-west, playing T-ball and softball in Mildura before joining Hawks Baseball Club.

After school, she moved to Melbourne and became a feature for the Doncaster Dragons, as well as the Victorian state team, where she won two championships.

After continuing to develop her skills, she was on the cusp of selection for the 2023 World Cup squad, but was in the last round of cuts.

She refused to let that be a setback and continued to stay on the radar of the selection panel, despite some time away from the sport.

Johnson had played baseball up until 30 weeks in her pregnancy, including a rigorous schedule of training, playing, and gym sessions.

She became a mum in May last year, and within three months had resumed high-performance training with Baseball Victoria, and got back on the field shortly afterwards.

"There was a massive adjustment to going back to training," she said.

"Once you have a child, a lot of things are different, like mentally, physically — everything."

She said starting a family had helped her shift her mentality towards the sport she had played for decades.

"I actually think having a child has helped me," she said.

"It's sort of helped me just maybe relax a bit more and maybe stop caring a little bit much and just — having fun, I think, is a big thing.

The challenge ahead

Johnson said making national selection was "definitely up there" in terms of her sporting achievements, but was eager to continue breaking new ground by earning a medal at the World Cup with the team.

Australia has been placed in a difficult pool in the group stage, with several formidable opponents.

The Emeralds are currently the 10th-ranked team in the world.

They are in a pool against the United States of America (world No.2), Canada (world No. 3), Mexico (world No.4), South Korea (world No. 12), and Hong Kong-China (world No. 8 and world No. 19).

Only the top three teams will advance to the World Cup Finals in 2027.

Australia's team this year has seven players making their debut, and 13 players with World Cup experience.

Eleven of them are aged 25 or younger, including three teenagers, and the average age of the team is 25.8.

The Emeralds' first match will be played at 6am AEST on July 23, against Mexico.