Jody Eidt (top) celebrates a run against Argentina in Canada’s opening game at the ISF championship Friday Photograph by: Richard Marjan, The StarPhoenix
By Cory Wolfe, The StarPhoenix July 18, 2009
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Softball Canada president Kevin Quinn has a 2020 vision.
By that year, he hopes to see his sport being contested in the Olympics by both men’s and women’s teams.
“It’s very, very important for our sport to get back into the Olympic program because it affects our funding and it affects the development of the sport overall,” Quinn said Friday as the men’s softball world championship opened in Saskatoon. “The Olympics are such a carrot for young athletes to get into the sport and continue in the sport.”
When London plays host to the 2012 Summer Games, women’s softball and men’s baseball won’t be on the program. International Olympic Committee (IOC) members voted to remove those sports during a vote in Singapore four years ago.
Softball is one of seven sports — along with baseball, golf, karate, roller sports, rugby and squash — being considered for inclusion in the 2016 Games. IOC executive members are slated to announce the successful candidates next month, but their decision still has to be ratified during the IOC general assembly in Copenhagen, Denmark, in October.
Canadian Olympic Committee president Mike Chambers said the international softball fraternity has properly argued its case.
“Certainly the COC and myself would be pleased if softball is one of the two sports chosen,” said Chambers, who participated in Friday’s opening ceremonies at Bob Van Impe Stadium. “There are other worthy sports as well, but (softball) would assist the Games in more than one way, including bringing more women to the Olympic Games.”
If women’s softball is reintroduced for the 2016 Games, the International Softball Federation “would be working very, very hard to get the men in the next time (for 2020),” said Quinn.
cwolfe@sp.canwest.com
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