FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 29, 2008

"GLOBAL PROGRESS" THE MESSAGE AS SENIOR BACK SOFTBALL TEAM HEADS FOR SPORTACCORD IN ATHENS
 Strong progress being made across all ten areas of Back Softball campaign blueprint for the sport's Olympic reinstatement in 2016
Report to be issued at SportAccord as campaign continues to build towards Beijing 2008

Senior Back Softball representatives, including Don Porter (International Softball Federation President) and Donna de Varona (Back Softball Campaign Co-Chair), will arrive in Athens on Saturday for SportAccord to update the Olympic Family delegates on the sport’s worldwide campaign to become even more global and inclusive.

A detailed progress report on the growth of member federations, participants, and media coverage – among other positive trends – will be issued to delegates. This comes during a busy period for the Back Softball campaign; attendees of last week’s International Sports Press Association (AIPS) Congress in Beijing were the first to publicly receive the progress report issued for Back Softball. One week earlier at the ISF world headquarters the Back Softball Task Force met and, among other business, reviewed the progress report, which is now available online (see below). (Another meeting will be convened next week in Athens as well, with members of the Back Softball Task Force that weren’t in attendance two weeks ago, including Honorary Chairperson Juan Antonio Samaranch, the former IOC president.)

President Porter said, “This is a great time to be meeting with a large number of the Olympic Family. We have just completed a comprehensive health-check of our sport worldwide and it is clear that we are making progress against all the ambitious targets we set ourselves when we launched the Back Softball campaign for the reinstatement of softball to the Olympic Programme in 2016. Our report will show the Olympic family that we have listened and we are improving.”

The progress report outlines the accomplishments made within each of the ten blueprint items that were the foundation of the Back Softball campaign’s formal launch in the Netherlands in June 2007. The advancements reported are since 2005, which is when the vote took place by the International Olympic Committee on the sports that would be included on the Games programme in 2012 (with softball not retaining its place for London four years from now).

Just a few of the highlights of the progress report are:

  • softball being accessible to more and more youths globally, including school programs and the next edition of the (16-and-under) Jr. Girls’ World Cup being planned for 2009

  • increased opportunities for women, such as Olympic Softball athlete Jessica Mendoza (USA) being confirmed as President-elect of the Women’s Sports Foundation, ISF Deputy Secretary General Low Beng Choo (MAS) being appointed to the IOC Women and Sport Commission, and Annie Constantinides (GRE) being appointed to the ISF Executive Council, raising that body’s percentage of female membership to 33%

  • softball equipment valued at USD$2.25 million having been sent to 91 countries

The report is accessible in the OTHER DOCUMENTS section of www.BackSoftball.com.


For more information, please contact ISF Director of Communications Bruce Wawrzyniak at brucew@internationalsoftball.com or (813) 864-0100, ext. 229.
 

 

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