Hold your breath softball fans…

Tokyo Olympic organizers will announce the fate of softball’s 2020 Olympic bid on Monday, September 28 according to a report by NBC Sports.

Baseball and softball are a joint bid for the 2020 summer games and are up against the following sports for inclusion: bowling, karate, roller sports, sport climbing, squash, surfing and wushu.

Even if Tokyo officials choose softball and baseball this September, the sports must clear one final hurdle to be reinstated as official Olympic sports — a decision by the International Olympic Committee next August. The IOC is under no obligation to add any of the finalists from the Tokyo officials, but the IOC does allow host cities to propose sports for inclusion in the games.

Baseball and softball are the overwhelming favorite for inclusion by Tokyo officials given the sports’ strong bases of support in East Asia and their success in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. A recent Poll by Yahoo Japan indicated that baseball and softball were indeed winning by a landslide with over 61,000 votes in support for their inclusion.



Softball and baseball are overwhelming favorites for inclusion by
Tokyo officials for the 2020 Olympics

In addition to the hope for 2020, softball and baseball have been included in Los Angeles’ bid for the 2024 Olympic games. Los Angeles became the official United States bid for the Olympics on September 1 of this year and will be up against international cities like Paris, Rome and Hamburg, Germany to be named the host city.

Softball joined the Summer Olympic sport program for the 1996 Atlanta games and only saw four Olympiads before being dropped after the 2008 Beijing games. The removal of both softball and baseball from the Olympic program for the 2012 London games was the first time in 69 years that a sport had been dropped.

Of the four Olympic games in which softball was included, the United States won three gold medals and a silver medal in Beijing behind Japan’s gold medal win.

Stay tuned as FloSoftball will have exclusive coverage on the announcement!



During softball's history in the Olympics, the US won three of four possible gold medals