2020 OLYMPICS

Plans revealed next week
Could softball be played
at 2020 Summer Olympics?

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will unveil next week 40 recommendations for major Olympic changes (to be voted on next month) in an effort to make the games more suitable to the needs of host cities as well as to attract more fans, sponsors and broadcast revenues.

Could adding back fastpitch softball (and baseball) to the Olympic games be part of the recommendations? 

That means, if softball was given an Olympic slot again, the first games would be played at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. It takes seven years from a sport's approval to its first appearance at the international event. 
 
In the past, one of the major upsets of the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics was Japan's defeat of the USA softball team to win the gold medal. It was days after that when the IOC voted to remove softball from the program for the 2012 Olympics – presumably because the Americans were too dominant in the sport even though Japan had just won the gold!

Now Japan is in the spotlight again as Tokyo will be the host of the 2020 games. The city undoubtedly will be pushing to have softball and baseball included in their games. Plus, both sports definitely would help the Olympics gain more fans, sponsors and broadcast revenues.

Click here for the full story. (Click here for today's 2015 USA Softball Women's National Team roster.)