SPORTS SPOTLIGHT BY LOLITA LOPEZ
I had the pleasure of interviewing three members of the US Olympic Softball team, winners of the silver medal in the 2008 Games. It is the last Games these ladies and for that matter any softball player will participate in...FOR NOW.
Petitions and grassroots efforts to reinstate softball for the 2016 Olympics are happening as we speak. Three years ago, the sport lost its position in the games by just one vote. A tragedy before and especially after speaking to Lauren Lappin, Stacey Nuveman and Monica Abbott. These ladies reminded me of what I already knew.
When I was a young girl, running track and field and playing volleyball, my dream was to make it to the Olympics. It is what drove me to pursue sports well past middle school, into high school and then to an NCAA Division I University. Even on my graduation day, even with my plans set to begin my first journalism job, that dream never died.
While I never got there, I anxiously anticipate the Games every four years and the opportunity the Olympics gives so many athletes to expand their worlds beyond the ones they live in, to make friendships with people of diverse backgrounds, to become a true people. I enjoy watching so many athletes live "the dream".
While I was lucky enough to have traveled to several different countries while playing sports, I probably experienced a quarter of what these ladies did in one trip to Beijing. Why tell our young daughters and sons, for that matter, to dream, if their chances to fulfill them are stripped away? Softball and baseball are out of the Olympics. The domination of the US team led the International Olympic Committee members to claim softball was not international enough.
Baseball didn't have the professional players and was seen as uncompetitive. When did politics and popularity come into play? I guess I am still that naïve little girl still dreaming. I refuse to stop and so does the USA Olympic Softball team.
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Comments: 3
Softball and Baseball were the twop sports I paid the mosty attention to in the 2008 Olympics. I was disappointed that our youngladies did not win the Gold Medal, but they played well and won the Silver Medal.
Isn't it a shame that we are penalized as a Softball Nation because we excel at the sport. The USA Softball Team has been dominant, so the International Olympic Committee votes to not allow Softball as a sport in 2012. What a shame. I have also heard speculation that London did not want to go through the expense of building Softball and Baseball Fields. Just another element in this controversy.
As for Baseball, the IOC wanted professional players from the Major Leagues to participate for their respective countries. This will probably never happen. That is why we have the World Baseball Classic.
Great job with the interview Lolita. Your coverage of sports of all sorts is terrific.
The IOC's politics are indecipherable. I believe softball is being punished for US dominance and for baseball's refusal to kowtow to IOC's demand for the professional players' participation. It is a death penalty by association. A death penalty because it discourages further participation and growth in the sport which then makes it yet more unlikely to return to Olympic status. A shame!!
I coach girls softball at a young age group and have been moving up with the girls. I played baseball incollege on a full athletic scholarship, but after my wife and I had 3 girls, my focus changed to girls fastpitch softball. I cannot get enough. I love the game and the girls are great athletes. One of the things I did notice though is that the dominance of the USA team makes the games somewhat boring. it is a fast game but with pitchers throwing as hard as they do and very little hits each game, maybe it is time to refocus the pitching mound and move it back a bit. If you moved it back 3-5 feet, the game will be more evenly balanced and the skills of the rest of the players will also come into play. Just a thought, but ti is a shame that they eliminated it for the future.
Thanks