Stunning News: Olympics Says No to Softball in 2024 Paris Games

A long and miserable winter just got longer and colder for those of us in softball hoping to see the sport thrive in the Olympic Games as the organizing committee of the 2024 Paris Olympics announced they would not recommend baseball/softball (looked upon as one sport by the International Olympic Committee) and karate be added.

Instead, the sports the committee voted to support includes sport climbing, skateboarding and surfing—which like baseball and softball will be in the 2020 Tokyo Games—and… wait for it… breakdancing.

Please hold your outrage to a dull roar.

Tony Estanguet, the head of the Paris committee, said the organizers will recommend those four sports only. Baseball and softball will return for the first time in 2020 after missing the two previous summer games and be two of the 33 sports.

The International Olympic Committee will vote on the four proposed sports in December 2020.

Softball had been in the summer Olympic games from 1996 to 2008 and Team USA won Gold medals in 1996, 2000, 2004 and a Silver medal in 2008.

The USA Team qualified last year for the Tokyo Games next year by winning the WBSC World Championship. Japan automatically qualified as the host country.

The four remaining slots will be decided by qualifiers in zones across the world: top two sports in the Americas, the winner of the Europe-Africa zone and the winner of the Asia-Oceania zone.

But beyond that, it appears that, unless something drastically changes, the dreams of little girls across the world to play softball in the Olympics after next year is once again uncertain.

Said one mother of two talented pre-college softball players, the oldest an Extra Elite 100 honoree committed to a Top 25 program: “It’s a giant step backwards for the sport. Our family is incredibly disappointed in the Olympic committee and in their decision.”

“Millions of fans around the world of this sport will be shocked. With all the growth of the sport, it’s a real blow to see this happen, especially for the reasons stated. We wish that more thought would be put in this decision. It shatters the dreams of tens of thousands of girls.”

Ironically, the USA Softball Jr. National team is scheduled this summer to compete in Paris, ostensibly to help promote the sport in Europe. It will be interesting to see if that trip continues and, if so, how the trip will be received (we have reached out to USA Softball for their official stance; we’ll update when a release or article from the U.S. governing body of softball is published).

Stay tuned for more on this stunning news.. and bundle up, it’s going to be a long, cold winter.

(Breakdancing… really?!?)

— Brentt Eads, Extra Inning Softball
email: [email protected])