A rendering of the stadium being built in Beijing to host both the 2008 Olympic Softball competition and this year's XI Women's World Championship.

ISF LOOKING AHEAD TO BEIJING FOLLOWING OLYMPIC DECISION
2006-02-13

International Softball Federation (ISF) President Don Porter has returned to the world headquarters following his trip to Torino. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) met there last week for their 118th Session, with softball’s status for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London being an item of discussion among the IOC Members.

Last July at the Session in Singapore, softball was removed from the 2012 Olympic programme following a vote that resulted in a 52-52 tie (plus one abstention), leaving the sport one vote shy of being retained at the Games in London. Immediately thereafter, Mr. Porter led efforts right up until the start of last week’s Session to get reconsideration for softball. While the subject did get raised, the support went 47-43 against having a re-vote, keeping softball out of the 2012 Games.

The devastating news was met with a reminder from Mr. Porter that softball will still be played at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, and he also indicated that the world governing body has a number of events to continue working toward. This August, 16 countries will compete at the ISF’s XI Women’s World Championship in China, in what will be the first event played at the new softball stadium built for the Summer Games in 2008.

A number of softball events are scheduled between now and August, as well as two major multisport games near the end of the year. The full list can be found on our website calendar of events.

Stay in touch with our homepage as well as the press releases and newsletters in the Communications section of our website for more regarding the 2012 softball decision.