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The International Softball Federation’s commitment to the Olympic value of promoting sport to young people is being further underlined with a series of university initiatives across the globe.

These latest developments are part of the BackSoftball pledge to encourage and support the organization of professionally-run softball tournaments for youth, with softball’s exemplary anti-doping record at the elite level making the sport increasingly popular.

The latest initiatives include:

- The ISF actively pursuing the organizing of the III World University Softball Championship, to be held next year

- The staging this weekend in Istanbul of the 29th Boğaziçi University Sports Fest, a multi-sport event that will consist of 1,500 Turkish and international athletes from 35 universities. The festival, which begins tomorrow, traditionally has softball on the program and is being hosted by the first place in Turkey where softball was played.

- A meeting with the African Student Sports Union (FASU) in Accra, Ghana, to discuss a new softball program for schools and universities in Africa. Marumo Morule (Botswana), the ISF VP/Africa and African Softball Confederation President attended on behalf of the world governing body.

- The NCAA Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma, which takes place later this month

- The national university championships in the Dominican Republic, featuring 13 organizations

President George Killian of the International University Sports Federation (FISU) said, “Softball is an active and growing partner to the world student sports movement and we look forward to continued growth around the world.”

ISF President Don Porter said, “The pace of progress softball is making around the world is quite staggering – and confirms the popularity of the sport among young people.

“The fact that young people from Africa to the Caribbean to central Europe are increasingly playing softball is a testament to all the hard work the ISF has been putting in worldwide. We are busy supporting regional development and the range of events further confirms that softball offers something for everyone.”

Six of the universities taking part in the Dominican Republic have recently installed pitching and catching schools for fast pitch softball, while there is a new ISF office in Lausanne, Switzerland, and – in addition to Santo Domingo – Regional Training Centers in Italy and Russia.

In Africa the sport’s growth has also been cemented recently by the African Softball Forum and a pledge of US$100,000 to support youth softball on that continent from the ISF, in partnership with FISU and FASU.

As will likely be displayed at the WCWS later this month, more and more colleges and universities in the U.S. are seeing international student-athletes competing in softball, some of whom have gone on to play in the Olympics.

Softball was first featured in the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996 and last year’s competition in Beijing was very successful with a total attendance close to 180,000 and a continuation of the sport’s excellent record of no positive doping tests in women’s international softball since testing began in 1982.

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.