Softball and the Olympics

With the Summer Olympics currently underway in London, it’s hard not to think about how this should be, perhaps, the event that young softball players and softball fans of all ages look forward to the most. But for the first time since its inclusion in Atlanta in 1996, softball, as you probably know, isn’t part of the Olympic program.

An Overview of the Predicament of Olympic Softball

For those of you unfamiliar with the brief history of women’s softball in the Olympics, I’m going to provide a brief overview, along with some resources you can use to learn more. Baseball and softball were each voted out of the Olympic program by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2005. Needing only a simple majority, softball received a tie vote and was thus eliminated.

Many reasons were suspected for baseball’s exclusion, including performance-enhancing drug scandals and testing policies, and the refusal of Major League Baseball to take a mid-season break to allow America’s biggest stars to compete in the Olympics. Reports indicated that most of the IOC members, many of whom represent countries where softball isn’t very popular, considered softball to be simply “women’s baseball.”

Despite the fact that we could all produce a long list of differences between softball and baseball, there is an important detail we need to remember: typically, Olympic sports have both male and female competitions. Since it’s extremely unlikely that women’s baseball and/or men’s softball would emerge for Olympic competition, baseball and softball will, in fact, need to work together if they want to be reinstated.

Both sports are working toward reinstatement in the 2020 Olympics. They’re making an effort to combine into a single federation to achieve their goal

How Exclusion from the Olympics has Affected Softball

Without the vibrant professional scene that male baseball players can strive toward, female softball players arguably lost their biggest stage. Today’s generation of young, talented, dedicated fastpitch softball players, many of whom display the same passion and train just as hard as their male equivalents, have little to look forward to after their NCAA careers.

Without the Olympics as a goal, some countries have decreased funding for their national softball programs, making travel for international play more difficult.

There’s no question that softball isn’t as popular with the general public as some other women’s sports, even in the United States. This is even more true in European and certain other countries. For a sport trying to build awareness and popularity at home and around the world, a big international stage like the Olympics is important.

Links to Olympic Softball Resources

This article from ESPNW gives a more detailed overview of the situation, and explains how softball’s fate is tied to that of baseball.

This Sports Illustrated article discusses the proposed International Baseball and Softball Federation, and some obstacles the two sports will still face moving forward.

This recent LA Times article contains interviews with Jessica Mendoza and Don Porter (president of the International Softball Federation) about the Olympics.

EDITED: I originally had a petition here, but a reader just informed me that the best way to show your support is through the official softball reinstatement facebook page. Check it out! And thanks as always for the feedback; we’re always looking to make our information better.