Press Release World Baseball Softball Confederation
LONDON —World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) official Antonio Castro has told a group of east London school children not to give up on their dreams to play at the Olympic Games.
“Don’t give up on your dreams to go to the Olympic Games” Castro, son of Cuba’s Fidel Castro, told a group of 10 and 11 year old students from Gayhurst Community School in Hackney east London.
Castro addressed the students during a game of baseball in the school playground during a visit to London while ton his way to St Petersburg Russia to prepare for the WBSC’s presentation to the IOC Executive Board on Wednesday to outline the case for baseball and softball to be included at the 2020 Olympic Games.
Castro, a highly regarded baseball player while at university before taking up medicine, told the students that team sports like baseball and softball were important because they taught players the value of working together to solve problems and strive towards common goals as well as about winning and losing and discipline.
“These are all important things to know about in life, on and off the sporting field, as well,” Castro said.
The school is part of a programme to develop baseball and softball in the UK and Castro said he and the WBSC are fighting to give young children the chance to play at the Olympic Games.
Castro said the recent rapid globalisation of baseball and softball in China, Africa, India, South America and other world regions would enable the Olympic values, ideals and art, education and sports programmes to be experienced by a new generation of baseball and softball communities around the world if the sports are included at the Games.
Baseball and softball belong in the Games because like the Olympic Movement, baseball and softball unite people across all the borders and boundaries that divide us, he said.
According to Castro, the WBSC had a vision to work with the Olympic Movement to give every boy and girl the chance to play ball and experience the joy and benefits of sport through baseball and softball.
“It’s a game anyone, anywhere can play, regardless of age, gender, social standing, disability, cultural or political position. It’s a worldwide game already—played in more than 100 nations,” Castro said in article he wrote hereunder in which he outlines his passion for the Olympic Games and for baseball and softball to be included in the Games.
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