How Do we......

WARRIORMIKE said:

In four years,how do we get our daughters a chance to compete in the Olympics in 2020?

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USA Softball already has 3 teams in place (National women's, women's elite and junior women's), some of which will qualify for the national team in 2019 which, IMO will be the core with minimal,if any, changes by the 2020 games.

I would guess the steps to qualify would be the same as it has been, make the national team and you have a shot at playing in the olympics

Clint said:

I was watching the men's beach volleyball today and the team from Qatar was recruited to play for that country. One player was from Brazil and the other from Senegal. Maybe we should start contacting other countries???

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You'd be surprised how many countries will do that. I'm pretty sure you don't even have to be a citizen if you have certain other ties to the country. A lot of European teams are on the lookout. I once played with this idea and found some info just googling "________ national softball team". Many have very little infrastructure.

After talking to someone that would know, I learned that the big problem with baseball and softball is the number of players per team that has to housed in the Olympic village. Plus the fact that fields have to be built at most venues. With college teams carrying 20, the Olympic teams will prob have 25 per team.

TamiAz said:

Does anyone know why Softball was taken out of the Olympics in the first place? I was watching today and I was puzzled why ping pong is an olympic event and softball isn't.

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There were several factors involved. The first was the Frenchy Jacques Something(Can't remember the last name) who was the head of the IOC at the time. The Frenchy hated that the MLB in the USA would not shut their season down and send the best pro athletes to the Olympics. They lumped baseball and softball together.

The IOC has a committee meeting several years before each Olympiad to determine which sports will be included in that Olympiad. At that meeting there has to be a majority vote to keep a sport. During the meeting for the 2012 Olympiad Jim Easton from Easton sports was on the committee that voted. He abstained citing business conflicts. Because of his abstention there was a tie, so no majority was in place to keep softball in the Olympics. Shortly after the vote there were backroom dealings and Easton was thrown off of the committee.

I don't know what kind of backroom deals/promises were in place in the committee that would have made Easton abstain himself from voting. But they played him like a chump perfectly. For that reason I will never buy Easton equipment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Olympic_medalists_in_softball

And for 2020, because it is in Japan the host country can add a sport. However there is no guarantee it will be in the future Olympiads.

Yea, playing for another country maybe the ticket.............

WARRIORMIKE said:

In four years,how do we get our daughters a chance to compete in the Olympics in 2020?

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Years ago for men's baseball I thought the IOC said if you can show that you have grandparents(?) that were born in a certain country, that would make you eligible to "try out" for that country's team. Now it's probably as long as you can pay the "family fee" you can play for whichever country you want.