Softball in the Olympics: From Melbourne and Mexico City to Atlanta and Los Angeles, an amazing Olympic history, rich with passion and perseverance

The 141st IOC Session in Mumbai, India, confirmed on Monday, 16 October, a Los Angeles 2028 Organizing Committee proposal and added five sports, including baseball/softball, to the Games programme.

The news was met with great emotion and celebration by athletes, fans and practitioners around the world. But how did Olympic softball get to where it is today? Here's a look back at the Olympic history of softball.

In the summer of 1965, the International Softball Federation (ISF) secretary-general the late Don Porter wrote to the International Olympic Committee (IOC). He believed that a sport that had just celebrated a Women's World Cup in Melbourne, Australia, was planning for a Men's World Cup in Mexico City and was quickly developing in Europe deserved consideration for the Olympic programme.

IOC secretary-general Lydia Zanchi replied: "I must tell you that unless a sport is widely practised in at least 25 countries, it has no chance, for it is very difficult to get into the Olympic Games because the tendency is to reduce than augment the programme".

After failing to become a demonstration sport at the 1968 Games, Porter flew to Mexico City, where IOC president Avery Brundage granted him a 15-minute meeting.

In 2018, Porter recalled meeting Brundage. "He was very tall, possibly 6 feet 5 inches (1.98 meters). I told him that I wanted softball in the Olympics. He said that it was going to be very difficult."

Brundage told Porter that he needed to have "patience." Indeed, Porter didn't lack patience and persistence. The 79th IOC Session recognized the ISF in 1977, too late for the Montreal Olympics. Other factors made the quest for a spot in the 1980 Games impossible, and the ISF concentrated on the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics.

Softball was one of nine sports seeking inclusion. The list included baseball. Porter worked well with the International Baseball Association president, Robert Smith. The two met IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, who suggested a joint candidature.

Porter and Smith agreed to explore the project of an International Confederation of Amateur Baseball and Softball. Smith would be the first president, with Porter as his first vice-president.

The project stood until the 91st IOC Session. On 13 October 1986, the IOC approved baseball as a medal sport for the 1992 Olympics.

"Don felt betrayed," remembered Smith in 2018. "Not so much by me or baseball, I believe, but by President Samaranch and the Program Commission."

Porter added: "At the IOC Session, Latin countries started to lobby for baseball, did not consider softball. Quite a disappointment."

Samaranch sent a note to Porter stating "You are next."

It would take almost five years. On 13 June 1991, IOC Session 97 in Birmingham, England, voted softball a medal sport, starting at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

After becoming the ISF president, Porter found the right softball advocate in Robert Helmick, the US Olympic Committee (USOC) president and an IOC Board Member. Helmick convinced him to candidate only Women's Softball since the IOC wanted more female athletes in the Games.

Porter, who had campaigned even during cancer treatment, made a calculation. He travelled at least 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometres) over 29 years, 6 months, 13 days to have softball recognized as an Olympic sport.

Softball made its debut as a medal sport at the Atlanta 1996 Olympics and went on to feature at the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Games before returning for Tokyo 2020 and LA2028.

A success story

Since its inclusion into the Olympic program, softball has been a huge success in all its previous Olympic appearances. “With sold-out sessions each day, more than 120,000 spectators warmly welcomed softball to the programme of the Olympic Games,” summarized the Atlanta 1996 Official Report. 

The second appearance was not short of excitement. The official Sydney 2000 Olympics post-games report said: “In only its second appearance at an Olympic Games, softball again proved to be a worthy member of the Olympic Family. 

"The precision and speed of the game, combined with the sheer athleticism of the competitors and the tightly fought matches, made it one of the most exciting and heavily supported sports at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.”

Athens 2004 delivered some of the greatest moments in the Olympic history, like the Yukiko Ueno perfect game (the only seven-inning perfect game in the history of the Olympic Games); or the dominant performance from the US squad, nicknamed by the US press as “The Real Dream Team”.

Ueno captivated again the Olympic fans in Beijing 2008, throwing 413 pitches in two days, completing the three Japan games in the playoffs over 28 innings to give her nation their first Olympic Gold Medal. The 2008 Olympic softball competition in Beijing was hugely successful with a total attendance close to 180,000.

Softball’s return at the pandemic-altered Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games became softball’s fifth appearance in the Olympics. The sport led off the Games’ sports programme, with the first six games of the event hosted in Fukushima, a region has been undergoing a continued regeneration following the destructive 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Japan won their second gold medal. 

The Tokyo 2020 Games saw the continuation of the sport’s excellent record of no positive doping tests at any of the Olympics since the sport’s debut on the world’s stage in 1996.