In one year, baseball will make its historic Olympic return at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad Tokyo 2020. A special opening day will feature games at Fukushima Azuma Baseball Stadium on 28 July 2021. The medal games are scheduled for 7 August.
Four of the six participating teams have already qualified. Japan earned the right as the hosting nation. Israel won the Europe/Africa Qualifier in September 2019 in Italy. Korea earned the right as the top finisher from Asia/Oceania at the WBSC Premier12 2019 (not including already qualified Japan). Mexico qualified as the top team from the Americas at the WBSC Premier12 2019, thanks to a dramatic extra-inning win against the USA in the bronze medal game. Both Israel and Mexico hadn't previously qualified for baseball at the Olympics.
There are two Olympic baseball qualifiers remaining: the Americas Qualifier and the Final Qualifier. The tournaments were originally scheduled in late March and early April 2020, but were postponed during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The eight National Teams set to compete in the WBSC Baseball Americas Qualifier include Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, USA and Venezuela.
The six teams set to compete in the WBSC Baseball Final Qualifier include Chinese Taipei, Australia, China, the Netherlands and the second- and third-place finishers from the WBSC Americas Baseball Qualifier.
The dates of these two qualifying tournaments are yet to be determined.
Baseball has been on the programme of five editions of the Olympic Games: 1992 through 2008. Cuba has won three gold medals (1992, 1996, 2004), USA one (2000) and Korea one (2008). The five silver medals have gone to Cuba (2), Australia, Japan, Chinese Taipei. Bronze medals have gone to Japan (2), Korea and USA.
The WBSC launched an Olympic Rewind series in collaboration with the Olympic Channel to mark the original dates of the Tokyo 2020 softball and baseball schedules. Past Olympic baseball games will be restreamed from 29 July to 9 August.
