TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Softball, one of the most exciting Olympic sports, was benched from the Paris Games despite being featured in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but why?
While the sport is slated to make a grand slam return in four years when the United States hosts the Olympics in 2028, softball insiders spoke with three-time Olympic gold medalist Brooke Bennett and J.B. Biunno about the sport’s future.
Just a few days before the Opening Ceremony begins, former manager of the U.S. women’s national softball team and current USF head coach Ken Eriksen, and two-time Olympic medalist and former pitcher, Michele Smith, discussed Team USA’s return.
It’s fitting softball will return during the Los Angeles Olympics since the sport was first introduced in 1996 when Atlanta, Georgia hoisted the torch.
“It was amazing. Actually, yesterday was the anniversary of the first-ever softball Olympic game in Atlanta and it was the first time that soccer, softball — a lot of female sports were actually included on the Olympic program,” Smith said. “Our sport has come a long way, you know, the 1996 Olympics really helped springboard our sport into the Southeastern Conference in NCAA softball. It gave more notoriety, more credibility to the sport. It grew around the world and it really was on the rocket ship continued through 2000.”
Smith added that softball helps teach young women teamwork and accountability, and brings so many great things together, but with the sport “being a little bit of in-and-out of the Olympics,” it’s been hard on softball.
After being added in 1996, softball remained on the Olympic program until 2012. The removal came in 2005 when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced it would discontinue the sport following the 2008 games.
Softball vanished from the 2012 and 2016 Games before making its revival during the 2020 Tokyo Games. According to USA Today, the reason behind softball’s inconsistent features is due to its popularity. Per the IOC’s rules, host cities are now allowed to add sports to their program, hence why the sport will return when the U.S. hosts the Olympics.
“There’s no question that L.A. is a tremendous empiricist towards that and I truly believe that if the decision to have the Olympics in L.A. in 2024 would have kept the sport in another continuous four years after Tokyo and after that, if France had gotten it, you might have seen a different deal where you would’ve had back-to-back, but that’s not the way it is,” Eriksen said.
However, when the Olympics returns to the U.S., softball will be held 1,300 miles from Southern California at Softball Park in Oklahoma, World Baseball Softball Confederation President Riccardo Fraccari announced.
“We need better facilities in the United States, we’re working very hard in Pinellas County to try to get some of the stadiums upgraded. We’ve done a good job with Title IX and building elite-quality stadiums at the collegiate level, but now we need it at the professional level. What a lot of people don’t understand — we are the only women’s sport that cannot play in a men’s facility,” Smith explained.
For both Smith and Eriksen, softball is more than just a sport that’s desperately trying to breakthrough in popularity to disrupt the ebb and flow of appearing in the Olympics — it’s a lifestyle, it’s dedication, but most importantly, it’s feeling prideful when you step onto the field in red, white and blue, representing your country on the biggest stage.
“Anytime you’ve heard that national anthem, you know, it was incredible, but the most impactful [memory] was wearing USA on my chest as a player and listening to the national anthem on the Opening Ceremonies in the communist country, only about 5 feet from Fidel Castro, when that Star-Spangled Banner played and every one of us was belting out, you know, the song there,” Eriksen recalled through emotions.