A survey on the Canadian Olympic Committee website (http://www.olympic.ca/en/) has polled nearly 10,000 people with softball leading the race of the seven sports seeking to gain Olympic Games status in 2016.

Today softball fans across the world are – for the fifth consecutive year – celebrating World Softball Day, which for 2009 has been themed as BackSoftball Day in support of the International Softball Federation’s (ISF) campaign to get the sport reinstated on the Olympic Programme after it was controversially dropped from London 2012.

Thousands of people from around the world have ‘Become a Fan’ on the BackSoftball page on social networking site Facebook while countless other blogs and websites promote the sport and its mission to get back into the Games.

 

The ISF’s YouTube channel continues to rack up thousands of views, with visitors logging on daily from countries all around the globe.

BackSoftball Athlete Ambassador Danielle Stewart, who won a bronze medal at last year’s Olympics as part of Australia' team, said: “The mounting worldwide support for our campaign is really motivating as we prepare for our critical presentation to the IOC (International Olympic Committee) next week.”

 

One of the many who are a ‘Fan’ on the BackSoftball page on Facebook, Stewart is in Lausanne along with other members of the BackSoftball team that will present to the IOC's ruling Executive Board on Monday, underlining the progress and development the sport has made in recent years and the opportunities it provides in under-developed and troubled areas of the world, the ISF claim.
 

Stewart will be joined by Michele Smith (pictured), a member of the United States team that won Olympic gold in 1996 and 2000, Jessica Mendoze, a silver medallist in 2008, Gergana Handjiyska, the Bulgarian Softball Federation’s secretary general, and Lynn Alexander, who will also coach South Africa's team at the Youth World Cup in Prague in August.

 

In addition, BackSoftball Task Force Co-Chairs Donna de Varona, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in swimming, and Dale McMann will be part of the presentation, as will ISF President Don Porter, ISF deputy secretary general Low Beng Choo and ISF Director General Toma Malikoff.

 

The team will now undergo rigorous preparations for Monday’s presentation to the IOC Executive Board, when they plan to convey, among other highlights, the development of softball across the globe including initiatives to promote the sport in under-developed and troubled communities.

 

Smith said: “The Olympic Games has been the pinnacle of competition for hundreds of softball players across the world and the competition in Beijing last summer was one of the highlights of the Games – and it was doping-free once again.

 

“But softball goes far beyond that.

 

"The ISF has done so much to promote the sport and it now touches the lives of people young and old across the world, and because it’s easy to learn and inexpensive to play, it’s making a real impact.”

 

De Varona said, “The ISF leadership and our global BackSoftball Ambassadors are prepared and excited to pitch softball to the members of the IOC Executive Board.

 

"This is softball's last and most important official presentation before the decision will be made as to whether or not softball returns to the Olympic programme in 2016.

 

"Our team is confident that softball exemplifies the best qualities of the Olympic movement. It is inclusive, global, adaptable, and lends itself to a multitude of initiatives seeking to teach important sports, health, and peace making lessons.

 

“The fact that the ISF has an office here in Lausanne demonstrates softball's growing popularity and commitment to those softball players and leaders worldwide who are eager to rejoin the Olympic movement.

 

"I am convinced that the BackSoftball team can fully communicate the tremendous virtues the sport promotes.”

Softball was first featured in the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996 and last year’s competition in Beijing was hugely successful with a total attendance close to 180,000 and a continuation of the sport’s excellent record of no positive doping tests at any of the Olympics since the sport’s debut on the world’s stage 12 years earlier.

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.

 

The other six sports up for election are baseball, golf, karate, roller sports, rugby sevens and squash.