Our sport made its debut at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, USA. Australia, Canada, China, Chinese Taipei, Japan, the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, and the USA competed for the title of Olympic Champion. The United States took the gold, China the silver, and, Australia the bronze.
Women's softball has then appeared in 2000 in Sydney, Australia, in 2004 in Athens, Greece, and, in 2008 in Beijing, China. After 13 years, in 2021, we saw softball in Tokyo 2020, when Team Italy represented Europe at the XXXII Olympic Games. Softball had the honour to open the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games sports programme with host Japan facing off against Australia at the Fukushima Azuma Stadium.
WBSC Europe Softball Vice President Gabriel Waage stated: "We are reminding today when softball was first announced as an Olympic sport. We had great event in Tokyo last year, and as a Tokyo 2020 Legacy Program Tokyo will host also U15 Women’s World Cup 2023."
Softball is not going to be part of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France, but the sport is growing, and counts approximately 30 million players around the globe. Mr. Waage commented: "June 13 is not only connected to the Olympic Games: let us celebrate the World Softball Day as a milestone of all our activities in softball."
In 2022, World Softball Day is celebrated exactly one day before the playball of the international softball European season with the Men's Slowpitch European Championship starting on June 14.
Cover photo by Grega Valancic
