‘World Softball Day’ to boost global awareness of sport/Olympic hopes

‘World Softball Day’ to boost global awareness of sport/Olympic hopes
11/06/2014

PLANT CITY, FL, USA — The WBSC will be promoting the celebration of World Softball Day 2014 all around the globe and among its 127 National Federation members on Friday, June 13th.

PLANT CITY, FL, USA — The WBSC will be promoting the celebration of World Softball Day 2014 all around the globe and among its 127 National Federation members on Friday, June 13th.

The creation of World Softball Day was inspired by Olympic Day, which is celebrated annually on June 23rd, and the June 13th announcement by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1991 that women’s softball was to be, for the first time in history, included on the Olympic programme, with its debut performance at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, USA.

For World Softball Day 2014, the WBSC will be encouraging all its national federations and individuals of all ages, abilities and backgrounds to participate in softball activity as part of a global initiative to put softball at the service of society to promote heath, physical activity, social integration and international spirit, as well as to inspire future generations of boys and girls to seek excellence and become empowered through sport, and through softball.

“World Softball Day will be a time of celebration to promote the idea that anybody in the world can become active in sport,” said WBSC Secretary General Ms. Beng Choo Low, “and that softball can serve as an attractive option for sport because it can be enjoyed almost anywhere and by children as young as two years of age to those beyond their eighties.”

WBSC officials indicate that the World Softball Day 2014 has been set up to “boost awareness” — particularly during the Olympic Agenda 2020 review on the formation of the Olympic Programme — that softball, along with baseball, serves as a common bond for millions of people from diverse ethnic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds in more the 140 nations around the world — and especially young people and females — to participate in sport and to make sport increasingly relevant to them.

“With World Softball Day 2014, the WBSC will continue building baseball/softball’s position together as one of the world’s leading and most inclusive, gender-balanced global sports,” added WBSC Softball President Dale McMann.

“World Softball Day will keep our sport evolving and strengthen the connection with millions of young people everywhere and with today’s youth culture, which is increasingly mobile and digital,” said Low and McMann.