The BackSoftball initiative has intensified its campaign as it continues to promote the sport worldwide with the goal of getting fast pitch softball reinstated for the 2016 Olympic Games. A senior team of representatives is traveling to six continents in just over a month attending key Olympic and major sports events.
The multi-national BackSoftball Task Force and Athlete Ambassadors are fulfilling a packed agenda of high-level meetings in the Middle East, South America, North America, Europe, Africa, and Oceania to promote softball in the bid to get the sport reinstated onto the Olympic Programme.
The Task Force’s efforts have recently taken in the International Olympic Committee Women in Sport Commission meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland; the Global Sports Forum in Barcelona, Spain; the Generations For Peace Camp ‘09 in Abu Dhabi, UAE; and the Olympic Council of Asia Congress in Kuwait. This is being followed by high level meetings with sports administrators in Venezuela; SportAccord in Denver, Colorado, USA; the Oceania National Olympic Committee General Assembly in Queenstown, New Zealand; an African Softball Forum in Banjul, Gambia; and the IOC Sport and Environment conference in Vancouver, Canada.
The BackSoftball Task Force, which, among numerous others, includes International Softball Federation President Don Porter, Co-Chairs Donna de Varona and Dale McMann, and ISF Deputy Secretary General Ms. Low Beng Choo, uses these meetings to demonstrate support for the values of the Olympic movement and to underscore BackSoftball’s key messages, such as gender equality, inclusiveness, accessibility, and the sport’s excellent anti-doping record.
Members of the Task Force are currently in Venezuela spreading the message about softball’s great success at the Beijing Olympics last summer and the increase in popularity of the sport among young people in South America.
Meetings are being held with Sports Minister Victoria Mata and Venezuelan Olympic Committee President Eduardo Alvarez Camacho, and discussions are also taking place in planning for the XXIV ISF Congress, which is being held in Margarita Island, Venezuela, in October this year.
ISF President Don Porter said, “The BackSoftball Task Force has had a number of highly successful meetings around the world explaining to sports administrators, government officials, and coaches & softball players themselves why softball should return to the Olympic Programme.”
The BackSoftball Task Force is also gearing up for SportAccord in Denver, USA, the international sports convention where Athlete Ambassadors Michele Smith and Jessica Mendoza will be among those promoting the BackSoftball campaign and talking about the great advancements in the elite game.
At the end of March, the Task Force, with Athlete Ambassador Danielle Stewart (Australia) will make a presentation in New Zealand at the Oceania National Olympic Committee General Assembly, where they will highlight the growing popularity and clean doping record in elite competition.
In April, the Task Force travels to Gambia for an African Softball Forum, highlighting the accessibility of softball, which is easy to learn and inexpensive to play. That session will also provide an opportunity to discuss the expansion of softball in Africa, with new federations expected to formally join the ISF over the course of the next 12 months.
The ISF president attended the inaugural Olympic Council of Asia Congress in Kuwait last week to highlight the great work softball is doing in the region, such as the recent Generations For Peace Camp in Abu Dhabi where women from across the Middle East learned how to use softball to promote gender equality and social cohesion.
This was of particular interest to the OCA Peace and Sport workshop that Mr. Porter attended, where he and Ms. de Varona were singled out by Generations For Peace founder HRH Prince Feisal of Jordan for their outstanding contribution to the project over the past three years.
As commission members as well as on behalf of the BackSoftball Task Force, Ms. Low and Ms. de Varona also recently attended the IOC Women in Sport Commission in Lausanne, Switzerland. Ms. de Varona, who recently returned from the Global Sport Forum in Barcelona, is also traveling to the IOC Sport and Environment conference in Vancouver where she will highlight the ISF’s environmental and professional approach to sports development across the globe.
Ms. de Varona commented, “We’ve been delighted by the incredibly positive response from top sports administrators around the world and I’m confident that we have proven to them how much softball adheres to Olympic values. From a personal point of view, softball’s dedicated efforts to promote team sports to women in areas where they have not previously had the opportunity to take part are satisfying and inspirational and in many cases life changing.”
Softball was first featured in the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996 and last year’s competition in Beijing, which was won by Japan, was very successful with a total attendance close to 180,000 and a continuation of the sport’s excellent record of no positive drug tests in major competitions.
A final decision on which sports will be added to the current roster of 26 at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games will be made at the 121st IOC Session in Copenhagen in October this year.
