BUILDING TOWARD BEIJING
2008-01-25

Today the countdown on the homepage of our website shows exactly 200 days until the first pitch at the Olympic Softball competition this year in Beijing, China.

The occasion is being marked with a new page that has been added to internationalsoftball.com where the eight teams that will participate are all listed, with information, links, the country flag, and a photo for each one. Two of them (Canada and USA) have already set their roster for the Games in August. Website visitors can click on the country name to get a pop-up window containing those player lists. A third country (Venezuela) has a pre-Olympic roster, which will eventually have to be pared down to the 15-player limit. That too is available online.

Australia will select their Olympic team in late March and announce the selections on the 31st of that month. The host country, China, will have a pre-Olympic roster in April and choose their final 15 in July. As these two, plus Chinese Taipei, Japan, and the Netherlands, confirm their rosters, the new page being launched today will be updated to contain pop-up windows with the corresponding player information.

In the months leading up to the Olympic Softball competition in Beijing, articles will also be published on internationalsoftball.com about the various pre-Olympic activities of the eight teams that will compete from August 12-21. The International Softball Federation also hopes to announce the Olympic game schedule some time next month.

(site navigation note: the new page linked to above can also be accessed from the Summer Olympics listing on the Calendar in the Events section of our website, or by simply clicking on the Beijing 2008 logo above the countdown in the right-hand column on the website homepage)