British Softball Campaigns for a Return to the Olympics
in 2012
 The
British softball community has joined the worldwide campaign
to have softball reinstated as an Olympic sport for the 2012
Games in London, a cause given new hope by IOC President Jacques
Rogge’s public announcement that the IOC may re-evaluate
its original decision to remove softball.
The British Softball Federation and BaseballSoftballUK, the
sport’s governing body and managing agency, have been
encouraging British players and supporters to sign an official
petition on a European-wide website that will be presented
to British IOC members in October, along with letters from
members of the Great Britain senior and junior national teams
and the Grass Roots Girls’ Fastpitch Development Programme.
T-shirts promoting the cause have also begun appearing at
major softball events in this country, worn by members of
the softball community and bearing the slogan “Let The
Women Play!”
Similar activities are being carried out in other European
countries, whose IOC members will also be made aware of a
growing feeling that an injustice was committed when the sole
women-only team sport in the Olympics was excluded on July
8 in Singapore on the basis of a tied vote, when 50% + 1 was
needed for retention.
The vote came as a shock, not only to the world softball
community but also to many IOC members, who had not anticipated
any changes to the Olympic programme. The decision was a particularly
savage blow to the Great Britain Women’s Fastpitch Softball
Team, whose recent progress up the European rankings would
probably have been rewarded with a host country place in London
2012, garnering increased resources and recognition for the
sport.
In the fallout from the July 8 decision – and while
other British Olympic sports were still celebrating London’s
successful bid to host the Games – BaseballSoftballUK
had begun planning an appeal, along with other softball nations,
under the guidance of the International and European Softball
Federations.
Separating itself from baseball, which was also ejected from
the Olympics but with considerably more reason (there are
drug issues in the sport and the best players in the world
will not play in the Olympics) softball is pitching its appeal
on the basis of the tied vote and the idea that an official
aim of the IOC is to promote opportunities for women in sport,
not curtail them.
The campaign received a boost on September 10 when IOC President
Jacques Rogge announced publicly that the IOC may re-evaluate
its decision, a move which would need to be requested by individual
IOC members.
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