Two Press Releases by the International Softball Federation
ISF PRESIDENT: “SOFTBALL SET TO BENEFIT THE OLYMPIC MOVEMENT IN 21st CENTURY”
Don Porter: “A vote for softball is a vote for the Olympic values that the IOC promotes across the world”
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Lausanne, (Switzerland) 14th June 2009: International Softball Federation President Don Porter has urged the International Olympic Committee to reinstate softball to the Olympic Programme to help meet Olympic challenges in the 21st century.
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Mr. Porter is part of the delegation that includes Olympic softball athletes Michele Smith (Team USA, gold medals in 2000 & 1996), Jessica Mendoza (Team USA, 2004 – gold, 2008 – silver), Danielle Stewart (Australia, 2008 bronze medal), and Rubilena Rojas (Venezuela, 2008), as softball makes its presentation to the IOC Executive Board here in Lausanne tomorrow (Monday).
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The IOC has stressed on a number of occasions that its priorities include the engagement of young people within the Olympic movement, increasing the role of women in sports participation & administration, and doping-free sport.
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Mr. Porter declared that softball can complement and even enhance the Olympic values that the IOC seeks to promote in every respect and was eager to underline the benefits softball’s return to the Olympic Programme would bring.
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Mr. Porter said, “A vote for softball is a vote for the Olympic values that the IOC promotes across the world. The ISF has made tremendous progress in the last few years, pushing forward our vision of a clean, inclusive, and accessible sport that enriches the lives of tens of millions of people around the world.
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“Like the Olympic Movement itself, softball enriches and changes lives, providing an opportunity to enjoy sport for women and young people in areas of the world where it is not always possible. Cheap and simple to play, softball promotes the Olympic values that are so important in today’s world, underscored by its exemplary anti-doping record at the highest level.
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“Softball captures the imagination of women and that is perhaps why it has become so popular with women in Muslim countries, for instance, where team sports are not often permissible. And in developing nations, softball is being taken up by children in huge numbers, providing a genuine alternative to the social problems young people tend to encounter in troubled communities.”
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Australian Olympic bronze medalist Danielle Stewart said that her experience at Fengtai Softball Field in Beijing last August underlined what softball means to the millions of players around the world.
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Ms. Stewart said, “Participating in the Olympic Games has been the pinnacle for softball players around the world and the standard of competition has increased so much, as we saw with Japan’s victory last summer in Beijing. Softball is a positive influence in society on so many levels, but at the elite level the Olympics is the ultimate dream.”
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The BackSoftball team in Lausanne will make its presentation to the IOC Executive Board tomorrow (Monday), highlighting the progress and development the sport has made in recent years and the opportunities it provides in under-developed and troubled areas of the world.
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Softball was first featured in the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996 and last year’s competition in Beijing was hugely successful with a total attendance close to 180,000 and a continuation of the sport’s excellent record of no positive doping tests at any of the Olympics since the sport’s debut on the world’s stage 12 years earlier.
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A final decision on which sports will be added to the current roster of 26 at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games will be made at the 121st IOC Session in Copenhagen in October this year.
GLOBAL “WORLD SOFTBALL DAY” CELEBRATIONS INCLUDE GAMES IN LAUSANNE
Rubilena Rojas:“This event underlines why the BackSoftball campaign is striking a chord with so many people around the world”
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Lausanne, (Switzerland) 13th June 2009: The BackSoftball Task Force has been celebrating World Softball Day here in Lausanne today by staging the “Let’s PlayBall” softball game for employees and families of sports federations in Lausanne. There will be more on-field activity here tomorrow as well.
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To promote softball and the spirit of sport the International Softball Federation, who earlier this year opened a European office at the Maison du Sport International in Lausanne, organized the game at the Dorigny Sports Centre by Lake Geneva.
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The event gave seasoned players a chance to have a game and introduced softball to general sports fans, with a particular focus on engaging children by utilizing softer balls and fun practice routines devised to promote the game to the younger audience.
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On-hand at the Dorigny Sports Centre were USA Olympic softball gold medalists Michele Smith (2000 & 1996) and Jessica Mendoza (2004) (silver last year), 2008 Olympic softball bronze medalist Danielle Stewart (Australia), and 2008 softball Olympian Rubilena Rojas (Venezuela), along with members of the BackSoftball Task Force, including two more international softball athletes, Gergana Handjiyska (Bulgaria) and Lynn Alexander (South Africa).
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Rojas, a BackSoftball Athlete Ambassador, said, “This has been a great opportunity to play softball with other sports federations and is a fitting way to celebrate World Softball Day. Some of the participants had clearly played the game before but there were plenty who have never picked up a bat and the speed with which they picked up the basics exemplified how easy the game is to learn. This event underlines why the BackSoftball campaign is striking a chord with so many people around the world.”
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Frederic Defroidmont, a real estate consultant from Lausanne, said, “Taking part in the softball game today has been great for us and our families. It’s one of those sports that’s quick and easy to learn and that makes it attractive to so many different age groups. I’ve heard a lot about softball establishing offices in Lausanne and that tells me how much the sport is developing in Europe – and its popularity explains why the BackSoftball campaign has touched a chord with so many people. Good luck softball!”
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This is the fifth consecutive year that World Softball Day is being celebrated, with the date coinciding with the day in 1991 when the announcement was made that softball would be added to the program of the Summer Olympics starting with the 1996 Games in Atlanta.
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The celebrations go far beyond Lausanne though. In conjunction with World Softball Day 2009, events are taking place around the world, focusing on the BackSoftball campaign, which aims to convince the International Olympic Committee that softball should return to the Olympic Programme in 2016.
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The “Lets PlayBall” event started a weekend of softball in Lausanne with another game to be played tomorrow (June 14) at SportNet2009 where families from Lausanne-based sports federations will come together for a sports day with softball one of the most prominent events on the programme.