The Olympic baseball and softball journey is unlike any other. But players and managers of these two disciplines would have done without such a privilege. Integrated into the program of the Games in Atlanta in 1996, they disappeared after Beijing in 2008. Finally perhaps returning from 2020. Baseball and softball, associated in the same “ticket”, were retained among the three finalists for the only place in the Olympic program in 2020, with wrestling and squash.
Less than two months before the vote, scheduled for September 8 in Buenos Aires, the leaders of the two disciplines are getting busy. Don Porter, president of the International Softball Federation, took advantage of the World Cup in Oklahoma City, in the United States, to take stock of the chances and strengths of his discipline. With this strong argument: “With more than 50 million practitioners around the world, girls and boys, men and women, with our two combined disciplines we form the largest sport not yet entered in the Games. »
On this field, baseball and softball have no competitors among the other applicants. A card that the two international institutions sought to strengthen by recently creating a joint federation, the World Baseball and Softball Confederation (WBSC). Don Porter insists: “Between us today we have around 130 member countries. » A way of telling detractors that these two disciplines live largely beyond North American borders.
Readily lyrical, the softball boss explains having received "hundreds of e-mails" after the IOC's announcement to maintain discipline for the final vote on September 8 in Buenos Aires. “I am aware of the economic issues of the election,” continues Don Porter, “but from my point of view the priority is to give back to these millions of young girls around the world their Olympic dream. »
The American leader admits to having long been reluctant about the idea of creating a common international institution with baseball. But he explains that he changed his mind after discussing it with certain influential members of the IOC. Don Porter also acknowledges having understood the need to get involved in the political game. By awarding, for example, the organization of the next softball world championship, in 2014, to the Netherlands. An incursion into Europe intended to broaden the audience, gifted through influence and support, of a sport little practiced on the Old Continent.
Will the North American strategy pay off? Response September 8.
