It’s Finally Here! With Tokyo Olympic Games Starting Today (U.S. Time), Team USA Makes 5th Olympic Appearance

The following information is courtesy of USA Softball…

A 13-year hiatus from the Olympic stage will officially come to an end tonight (U.S. time) and tomorrow, July 21, 2021 (Japan time) as the sport of softball is set to kick off the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Fukushima Azuma Stadium.

Click HERE to see how to watch the Olympic softball games which start with Australia vs. Japan at 8 pm EST/5 pm PST today!

After a long-awaited 4,717 days since the last Olympic Softball competition, the world-ranked No. 1 U.S. Olympic Softball Team will make its fifth Olympic appearance alongside No. 2 Japan, No. 3 Canada, No. 5 Mexico, No. 8 Australia, and No. 9 Italy as the six countries competing in the 17-game competition.

“The energy of all the teams participating in this edition of the Olympic Softball competition has been building for 13 years,” said U.S. Olympic Softball Team Head Coach, Ken Eriksen. “Japan Softball has done the ‘heavy lifting’ of being a relentless proponent of softball’s inclusion in these games along with the WBSC and USA Softball. The partnership amongst all the countries has shown that this is truly a “world game” now more than ever before. For Team USA, we are very excited for Day 1 to start.”

The Olympic competition will begin with an opening round-robin where each country will go head-to-head July 21-26 with the top four nations in the final standings advancing to the medal rounds on July 27.

In the medal rounds, the top two countries will compete for the highly anticipated Gold Medal, while the third and fourth place squads will battle for Bronze.

The wait is over‼️

The @USASoftballWNT returns to the Olympic stage tomorrow (July 20 ET) to kick off the #TokyoOlympics

This will mark Team USA’s 5️⃣th Olympic appearance.

📰 INFO → https://t.co/IDXIAgoRMV pic.twitter.com/Gfyvts5N71

— USA Softball (@USASoftball) July 20, 2021

Team USA will begin its quest to reclaim the Gold Medal on July 21 with a 12 p.m. Japan Standard Time (JT) contest against No. 9 Italy, followed by matchups against No. 3 Canada (July 22), No. 5 Mexico (July 24), No. 8 Australia (July 25) and No. 2 Japan (July 26).

The first two games for the Red, White and Blue will be played at Fukushima Azuma Stadium before capping the Olympic competition at Yokohama Stadium.

Highlighting the 15-player U.S. Olympic Softball Team roster are Olympians Cat Osterman (Houston, Texas) and Monica Abbott (Salinas, Calif.) in addition to 10 members of the 2018 World Championship team and 12 members of the 2019 Pan American Gold Medal team.

The Red, White and Blue is also loaded with former student athletes from four athletic conferences: Big Ten (one athlete), Big 12 (one athlete), SEC (five athletes) and Pac-12 (eight athletes) who represent 10 NCAA Division I universities.

Four athletes have won one or more NCAA Women’s College World Series (WCWS) National Championships with their respective university, while three have garnered USA Softball Player of the Year honors at least once during their career.

The U.S. recently completed the 2020-21 “Stand Beside Her” tour, presented by Major League Baseball (MLB) with a combined 37-1-1 record.

After postponing the 2020 tour in March of 2020 with 16 wins, the team resumed preparations in January 2021 where Team USA posted a 21-1-1 record through the second half of the pre-Olympic tour.

“It’s been an incredible journey,” said Team USA outfielder, Haylie McCleney. “We started off great with the team being named back in 2019 and then going on an incredible tour. Obviously, the delay in the middle brought uncertainty and obstacles, but all of what we have been through has brought us closer as a unit. Now we’re entering the final chapter, and we just have this hope and sense that we are going to finish this story well. It’s going to be a story we tell our kids and grandkids about and I just can’t wait to get this thing started.”

The U.S. Olympic Softball Team garners a rich history in the Olympic Games, finishing atop the podium in three of their four Olympic appearances with an overall record of 32-5. The Red, White and Blue captured three-consecutive Olympic Gold Medals in 1996, 2000 and 2004 and a Silver Medal at the 2008 Olympic Games after falling to Japan, 3-1.

The USA Softball Women’s National Team is the most decorated program in the sport’s history, holding 18 Olympic records, four three-time Gold Medalists, six back-to-back Gold Medalists, one Olympic Hall of Fame member, and one Olympic Hall of Fame team.

“I am so excited that softball is back in the Olympic Games,” said four-time Olympian and U.S. Olympic Softball Team Assistant Coach, Laura Berg. “The athletes will have these memories for a lifetime, and I feel so grateful to be a part of something that they’ve worked so hard for. It’s going to be a great return for the sport of softball.”

Fans from across the globe can follow along with the Olympic Softball competition through LIVE broadcasts on NBC Sports Network (NBCSN) and CNBC in addition to a live stream available on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app. Click here to view the full television schedule.

The WBSC Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games media guide can be viewed by clicking here.

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Here’s the day-by-day schedule over the next week for Team USA…

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Softball Competition

July 21 – July 27, 2021

Full Schedule | WBSC Softball/Baseball Media Guide

Download the NBC Sports app to follow along via live streaming. 

Click here for more information on the television schedule for the Tokyo Olympic Softball competition.

Originally set to take place July 24, 2020, the Tokyo Olympic Games will be held July 23 – Aug. 8, 2021 as announced by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), with USA Softball, USA Baseball and USA Football kicking off the Games on July 21.