Defeating Goliath

While I'm not saying I'm necessarily happy about it, the United States, in one of the biggest upsets of the 2008 Olympic games, lost to the Japanese softball team. Hopefully, this will make the IOC reconsider their decision to eliminate softball from the Olympic roster. Nothing quite shows the U.S's "dominance" than a good old loss, eh? Team USA lost to Japan 3-1 in the gold medal match, forcing USA to settle for their first softball silver medal. In the last (for now) Olympic softball match, one of the reasons for the deleting of softball from 2012 is blown to smithereens. I say go Japan. Why? Because it has just made the IOC look like fools.

Hearts and Souls

Softball is not just a sport. On the contrary, it is far from it. It is a wavelength for young women to strive for excellence, and excellence that cannot be obtained in a classroom or on a PlayStation 2. It is an outlet for leadership, teamwork, sportsmanship, and skill. I do not play softball. I used to when I was younger, but sports were never my "thing". My cousins, however, are as dedicated to sports as I am to writing. While my one cousin's baseball is important, since softball is the talk of the town I'll skip him and go straight to his sister: the closest thing I have to a sister. My cousin (we'll call her "Kait" because if she reads this she'll kill me for using her real name) is eight months younger than me. We've been like sisters despite the fact that we look nothing alike, despite the fact that our interests aren't even similar, and despite the fact that I went to public school and she went to Catholic school. Kait is the most dedicated person I know. She plays softball all year round. Winter, spring, summer, and fall, she's practicing or playing or both. When softball was taken out of the Olympics, she might not have openly reacted, but I could tell that she was hurt. Her one chance at taking the torch of Olympic fame from Jennie Finch would never happen. And that, I know, hurt. Kait was the only freshman on our high school's varsity team. She plays on an 18U team at the age of 15. She has been a great softball player since she was eight years old, and I can't even begin to express how proud I am of that. Like Kait, thousands of young girls across America look to players like Finch, and Jessica Mendoza, and all of Team USA for inspiration and a goal to reach. The goal, however, was stolen from them with the vote for sports in 2012. Young girls, and young women, all over the nation have been practicing for years to reach the perfection that is Team USA. Instead, their sport will be reduced to college games on upper channels, a sport all but devoid of professional status. The Olympics, like softball, was an outlet for the talents of young women everywhere. But the Olympic dream is over, and now all young women like Kait have to look forward to is the bleak hope that the IOC will see the truth behind their mistake and reinstate Olympic softball.

The Start of the Quest

Softball was introduced to the Olympics for the 1996 Summer Games. The United States quickly dominated the sport that is present in few countries, winning all three of the past gold medals. The U.S. team is on its way to a fourth gold during this summer Olympics. Australia, Japan, and China round out the medal count with one silver each, two bronze for Australia, and one bronze for Japan. Only thirteen countries participate in Olympic softball. Along with the four above, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Cuba, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela participate. Softball is one of the more popular Olympic sports, as it is one of the team sports in the Olympics that rarely is in the spotlight professionally. However, the success of the United States has caused some controversy. Is it fair to have a sport so greatly dominated by one country? If it wasn't, basketball would have been eliminated with the 1992 dream team. Swimming would be gone because of Michael Phelps. Diving and gymnastics, both sports dominated by China, would be history. Even track, this year being dominated by Jamaica, and by the US clean sweeping the 400m hurdles, would be a thing of the past. Despite these obvious contradictions to the "Olympic softball domination", the IOC voted to drop softball and baseball from their Olympic programs in 2012. Soon, the IOC will be meeting again to vote on the program for 2016. While the fight for the 2012 Olympics is long since lost, a new war is beginning. This blog, written by someone who has seen first hand how this move can decimate young softball players, is dedicated to the fight to keep softball in the games.

If you have a comment, email me at AlexKost1319@gmail.com. Keep the fight going. Save softball for 2016.