The International World Games Association (IWGA) is celebrating its 40th anniversary after 10 successful editions of the World Games. The IWGA was founded on 21 May 1980. Baseball and softball were two of the 12 founding sports of the IWGA. The first edition of The World Games was held the following year in Santa Clara, California, USA.
The next edition of The World Games will be held in Birmingham, Alabama, USA in 2022 (postponed from 2021), when The World Games return to the USA for the first time since 1981.
Women’s softball will be part of the official programme for the third time in history. USA claimed the gold medal at the first two editions of the Games, at Santa Clara 1981 and London 1985. Softball was played at The World Games in Cali 2013 as an invitational sport, where Cuba earned the gold medal.
World No. 1 USA (host), No. 2 Japan, No. 3 Canada, No. 5 Mexico, No. 6 Chinese Taipei, No. 7 China, No. 8 Australia, and the winner of the European Championship 2020 will participate in the eight-team competition.
