Everything about the game seems golden. Even the park.
With radiant hopes, glowing expectations and some wickedly blazing fastballs, women's fast pitch softball makes its sparkling Centennial Olympic debut at Golden Park in Columbus.
Eight teams -- Australia, Canada, the People's Republic of China, Japan, the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Chinese Taipei and the United States _ will compete for the sport's first-ever gold medal, culminating a 25-year quest to secure a place in the Olympic Games. But while softball's journey to the Games has been a long one, the sport premiers at the Games as an official, full-medal event. In comparison, baseball appeared as a demonstration or exhibition event six times over 80 years before earning the status of official Olympic sport.
Sports introduced to the Olympic Games are often specialties of the host country. But if judo was a strong event for the Japanese in Tokyo in 1964 and badminton a strength of the Koreans in Seoul in 1988, than softball is a colossus for the Americans in Atlanta in 1996.
Owners of three consecutive world championships, 11 straight international tournament titles and a 110 - 1 record over the past decade, the United States is the natural favorite for the gold medal. But as dominant as the U.S. team has been, other countries may be closing the gap.
Ninety-four countries now sport memberships in the International Softball Federation. In 1982, the United States took 4-1/2 innings to defeat China 38-0. Four years later, China took the U.S. team to the limit before losing 2-1 in the world championship game. China continued its rise in the sport in 1995 when the team ended a nine-year, 106-game U.S. winning streak with a 1-0 win in nine innings at the Superball Classic in Columbus. In the same tournament, Australia beat China, 5-2. A hard shot. A bad bounce. A lucky break. The first Olympic gold medal could go to any number of teams.
The softball played by these teams is no backyard-variety, everybody-hits type of recreational activity. With pitchers hurling fast balls at speeds up to 72 miles per hour, "fast pitch" in Olympic terms may be like calling the marathon a "long race."
The Olympic Games also have brought a touch of glamour to the sport. Once delegated to sandlots and summer leagues, softball now had reached the pinnacle of international prestige while quickly making celebrities of its top athletes.
But while today's standouts will collect the gold medals and bask in the fanfare of Olympic glory, the next generation of softball stars may be the biggest winners of the sport's Olympic debut.
For these players, everything about the game remains golden. Especially the future.
This is an official publication of the Atlanta Committee for
the Olympic Games Sports Publication Department. Written by Howard
Thomas.
| The Mother Nature was kind to Olympic athletes and spectators. The average high temperature during the Games was 89 degrees with an average low of 72 degrees. Highest temperature registered (20 July) - 99 degrees. Lowest high temperature registered is 79 degrees (28 July). |