OLYMPIC Q&A WITH THE ISF PRESIDENT

From the federation’s world headquarters in Plant City, Florida, ISF President Don Porter gave the following replies to questions that were asked of him less than 24 hours before his departure for Athens, where the third Olympic Softball competition will begin next week Saturday (August 14):

QUESTION: Is this an exciting time for you or do you feel pressure when your sport is on “the world’s stage” like the athletes do?
DON PORTER: This is certainly a very exciting time. Softball has proven to be a global sport, but the Olympics provide a great opportunity for the entire world to continuously see it at its highest level (for ten straight days).

Q: Are the athletes ready?
DP: Only time will tell, of course. But, we know that the best athletes in our sport compete at the Olympics, so when you get to that level, and with all the preparation that the national federations undertake, they’ll certainly be as prepared as they can be.

Q: How do you feel the competitiveness of this year’s Olympic Softball competition will be compared to the first two in 2000 & 1996?
DP: There actually seems to be a consensus that this will likely be the most competitive out of the three Olympic Softball competitions. The teams have all worked so long and hard and have proven that they deserve to be here one as much as the other. The U.S. has won the gold medal at each of the first two, but Japan is strong – they won the silver at the 2002 Women’s World Championship and the 2000 Olympics. Australia has won the bronze at each Olympic Softball competition so far and will be right in the thick of things again. China won the silver in Atlanta in ’96 and made strong showings at the Games in Sydney and in 2002 (at the World Championship). Greece, the host country, is a real eye opener. Nobody knows what to expect, yet they just finished their pre-Olympic tour unbeaten in 22 games! Italy has a new coach and great pitching. Canada has been competitive this year, having played in a number of international competitions. And Chinese Taipei is coming off a bronze medal performance at the 2002 World Championship. So like I said, we should see some real good games.

Q: This will be the first Olympic Softball competition since the ISF made some changes a couple years ago. What should that be like?
DP: It can only help things, which is why we made the changes that we did. The pitching distance has been moved back (from 40 to 43 feet) as have the outfield fences (from 200 to 220 feet), both of which will put more offense into the game. We’ve kept the pace of the game moving along, which is very important to television, by limiting the number of warm-up pitches that pitchers can throw between innings as well as giving them the ability to issue an intentional walk without having to throw four ‘balls.’ And we now have a countdown clock to help enforce the rule governing the amount of time between each pitch. The games can only be more entertaining as a result of these changes we’ve made.

Q: A lot has been made out of the International Olympic Committee’s Program Commission having recommended softball and two other sports for exclusion from the Olympic Program back in 2002. Is that what prompted these changes?
DP: No. You can look it up. We actually made most of these changes at our Congress in November of 2001.

Q: But do you think that while you’re in Athens the Program issue will be raised as far as your sport?
DP: Of course it will. But, the truth is, it’s really not a story anymore. The IOC stated a couple months ago that the Program for the 2008 Summer Games will remain the same as it is for 2004. So we know we’re in for Beijing. Plus, they’ve also said that following the Games in Athens, ALL sports will be evaluated and in July 2005 when they meet in Singapore, that will be the last chance for any changes to be made to the Program for 2012, but again, it’s ALL sports that are going to be evaluated.

Q: And you obviously think that softball will stay on beyond 2008?
DP: Well, only time will tell. But we’ve certainly got so many positives going for us, that it’d be hard to exclude us. We’ve never had a positive doping case in women’s (international) softball since testing began in 1982. Our average TV ratings among the top ten women’s sports in Atlanta ranked fifth, and then fourth in Sydney. Our Olympic competition features female athletes, and the IOC has continuously said they prefer more involvement by women in the Olympic Movement. And the venues we used in Atlanta and Sydney are still being used extensively to this day. Venue costs are not an issue with softball if they’re viewed the way they should be, which is, on their own. The cost of the softball venue cannot be considered as part of the entire complex. In other words, in Athens we’re going to be where six other sports are. The total of all those venues together doesn’t reflect accurately how much the venue for each sport cost individually, which would not be anything alarming for softball.

Q: Two more questions. Greece is fielding a team at the Olympics because they’re the host country. Do you think softball will grow there as a result?
DP: It already is growing there, but certainly the team that’s going to play in the Olympics plays a big part in that. The Hellenic Amateur Softball Federation works hard to make sure that this is only the beginning for our sport there. The team has done clinics there. And we’ve already discussed trying to schedule some international competitions in the Olympic Softball Stadium in the very near future once the Games are over. Work is also being done to try to get the sport into the schools there.

Q: Is Greece an isolated case or is the ISF working this hard with any other countries?
DP: We have 124 member countries. We’re working that hard so that they ALL can thrive. We’ve sent out equipment valued at approximately seven hundred thousand dollars (U.S.) over the last two years to well over 50 countries. There are competitions all over the world, which also includes the multisport games like the Pan American, Asian, All-Africa, and South Pacific Games, among others, and many clinics take place around the world too. Our development efforts are extensive. We’re trying to get the sport into more schools around the world. We can’t stop working. There are far too many potential softball players out there that we need – and want – to reach.