LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) is the only international sports federation (IF) that stages a World Cup for the U-12 age bracket, which highlights the leading efforts of baseball and softball to engage youth around the world, in the spirit of today's United Nations (UN) International Youth Day.
The theme of this year’s International Youth Day, which is celebrated annually on 12 August, is Youth Engagement for Global Action, including at the local, national and global levels.
The U-12 Baseball World Cup was
played for the first time in 2011. Taiwan has hosted the global competition since
its inception, with the city of Tainan building
a 130 million USD multi-stadium complex to host the biennial WBSC U-12 Baseball
World Cup through 2027.
Last year, the WBSC celebrated the inaugural edition of the U-12 Mixed Youth Softball World Cup, adding the property to Baseball and Softball World Cups, which span across four youth categories, including U-12, U-15, U-18 and U-23.
In further efforts to target youth, WBSC also launched a new simplified version of baseball/softball in 2017: Baseball5, the new five-on-five, five-inning street version of the game that can be played anywhere and only requires a rubber ball.
WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari
believes that "this faster urban discipline will help drive baseball and
softball to new places not possible before," helping to introduce the
sport to the next generations of athletes all over the world.
The inclusion of Baseball5 as an official medal event at the next Youth Olympic Games (YOG) showcases the sport’s youth appeal and is an unprecedented development opportunity to grow the game across Africa, where the 2026 YOG will take place.
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