Upheaval in the international softball calendar, one of the additional sports at the Tokyo 2020 Games. The World Baseball and Softball Confederation (WBSC) announces that it has decided to postpone the 2021 Women's World Cup. It will ultimately take place two years later , during the year 2023. The WBSC has also decided to recognize the 2022 World Games scheduled for Birmingham, Alabama (United States), as the major competition of the year 2022. The winning team of the tournament will be designated World Champion. With such a change, women's softball will have one global competition per year over the next three years: the Tokyo Games in 2021, the World Games the following year, then the World Cup in 2023. This last event will then be organized every two years in odd years. The last Women's Softball World Cup took place in 2018 in Chiba, Japan. It served as an Olympic qualifying tournament, with the United States clinching victory in the final and their ticket to the Tokyo 2020 Games.
