TOKYO, Japan –– A 13-year hiatus from the Olympic stage will officially come to an end tomorrow, July 21, 2021 as the sport of softball is set to kick off the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Fukushima Azuma Stadium. After a long-awaited 4,717 days since the last Olympic Softball competition, the world-ranked No. 1 U.S. Olympic Softball Team will make its fifth Olympic appearance alongside No. 2 Japan, No. 3
Canada, No. 5 Mexico, No. 8 Australia, and No. 9 Italy as the six countries competing in the 17-game competition.“The energy of all the teams participating in this edition of the Olympic Softball competition has been building for 13 years,” said U.S. Olympic Softball Team Head Coach, Ken Eriksen. “Japan Softball has done the “heavy lifting” of being a relentless proponent of softball’s inclusion in these games along with the WBSC and USA Softball. The partnership amongst all the countries has shown that this is truly a “world game” now more than ever before. For Team USA, we are very excited for Day 1 to start.”
The Olympic competition will begin with an opening round-robin where each country will go head-to-head July 21-26 with the top four nations in the final standings advancing to the medal rounds on July 27. In the medal rounds, the top two countries will compete for the highly anticipated Gold Medal, while the third and fourth place squads will battle for Bronze.
Click here to view full Olympic Softball schedule with full television listings and live stream links
Team USA will begin its quest to reclaim the Gold Medal on July 21 with a 12 p.m. Japan Standard Time (JT) contest against No. 9 Italy, followed by matchups against No. 3 Canada (July 22), No. 5 Mexico (July 24), No. 8 Australia (July 25) and No. 2 Japan (July 26). The first two games for the Red, White and Blue will be played at Fukushima Azuma Stadium before capping the Olympic competition at Yokohama Stadium.
Highlighting the 15-player U.S. Olympic Softball Team roster are Olympians Cat Osterman (Houston, Texas) and Monica Abbott (Salinas, Calif.) in addition to 10 members of the 2018 World Championship team and 12 members of the 2019 Pan American Gold Medal team. The Red, White and Blue is also loaded with former student athletes from four athletic conferences: Big Ten (one athlete), Big 12 (one athlete), SEC (five athletes) and Pac-12 (eight athletes) who represent 10 NCAA Division I universities. Four athletes have won one or more NCAA Women’s College World Series (WCWS) National Championships with their respective university, while three have garnered USA Softball Player of the Year honors at least once during their career.
The U.S. recently completed the 2020-21 “Stand Beside Her” tour, presented by Major League Baseball (MLB) with a combined 37-1-1 record. After postponing the 2020 tour in March of 2020 with 16 wins, the team resumed preparations in January 2021 where Team USA posted a 21-1-1 record through the second half of the pre-Olympic tour.
“It’s been an incredible journey,” said Team USA outfielder, Haylie McCleney. “We started off great with the team being named back in 2019 and then going on an incredible tour. Obviously, the delay in the middle brought uncertainty and obstacles, but all of what we have been through has brought us closer as a unit. Now we’re entering the final chapter, and we just have this hope and sense that we are going to finish this story well. It’s going to be a story we tell our kids and grandkids about and I just can’t wait to get this thing started.”
The U.S. Olympic Softball Team garners a rich history in the Olympic Games, finishing atop the podium in three of their four Olympic appearances with an overall record of 32-5. The Red, White and Blue captured three-consecutive Olympic Gold Medals in 1996, 2000 and 2004 and a Silver Medal at the 2008 Olympic Games after falling to Japan, 3-1. The USA Softball Women’s National Team is the most decorated program in the sport’s history, holding 18 Olympic records, four three-time Gold Medalists, six back-to-back Gold Medalists, one Olympic Hall of Fame member, and one Olympic Hall of Fame team.
“I am so excited that softball is back in the Olympic Games,” said four-time Olympian and U.S. Olympic Softball Team Assistant Coach, Laura Berg. “The athletes will have these memories for a lifetime, and I feel so grateful to be a part of something that they’ve worked so hard for. It’s going to be a great return for the sport of softball.”
Fans from across the globe can follow along with the Olympic Softball competition through LIVE broadcasts on NBC Sports Network (NBCSN) and CNBC in addition to a live stream available on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app. Click here to view the full television schedule.
The WBSC Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games media guide can be viewed by clicking here.
About USA Softball
USA Softball (USAS) is a 501(c)(3) not-for profit organization headquartered in Oklahoma City, Okla., and is designated as the National Governing Body (NGB) of Softball in the United States and a member of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee. One of the nation’s largest sports organizations, USAS sanctions competition through a network of Local Associations, which includes all 50 states and select metro associations. USAS is dedicated to providing people of all ages the opportunity to play the game they love at a variety of levels by offering recreational, league, tournament and competitive play for fast pitch, slow pitch and modified pitch. USAS annually conducts thousands of tournaments throughout the country including over 100 National Championships. The USAS umpire program is among the nation’s largest and are widely known as the best trained umpires in the game.
As the NGB for the sport of softball, USAS is responsible for training, equipping and promoting the six USA Softball National Teams that compete in events such as the Olympics, Pan American Games, World Championships and other international and domestic events. For more information on USAS, including its founding and history as the Amateur Softball Association of America (ASA), please visit, www.USASoftball.com.
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