Vote now to get baseball/softball reinstated at the Olympic Games

Having only ever appeared previously as a demonstration sport, baseball became an official Olympic sport at the Barcelona Games in 1992. At the time it was only introduced for men to play, but at the Atlanta Games in 1996, softball was introduced for women. Baseball and softball both featured during the Sydney Games in 2000, the Athens Games in 2004 and the Beijing Games in 2008.

In 2005 however, the IOC voted to drop the two sports from the Olympic program after the Beijing Games, the first time a sport had been removed from the programme for 69 years when polo was dropped in 1936. Disappointingly for the British crowd, baseball and softball would not feature at London 2012. With the announcement that both golf and rugby sevens would be introduced at the 2016 Olympics, it was feared that neither baseball nor softball would ever feature at an Olympic Games again.

In an effort to ensure the Olympic Games remain relevant to sports fans of all generations, the Olympic Programme Commission systematically reviews every sport following each Games. Thanks to the efforts of the ISF and IBAF, baseball and softball are on a list of eight sports that are all vying for inclusion in the 2020 Olympic Games programme. The other seven sports are roller sports, sport climbing, squash, wakeboarding wrestling and wushu.

The eight sports are scheduled to make presentations to the Executive Board at its meeting in St Petersburg, Russia, in May where the EB will select which of the eight sports to recommend to the 125th IOC Session for inclusion as an additional sport on the 2020 programme. The 125th IOC Session will take place from the 7th to 10th September in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

A website called ‘inside the games’ is currently running a poll to see which sport people think the IOC should vote to include on the Olympic programme for 2020. If you think baseball and softball deserve another chance then don't miss out on the opportunity to have your say. Voting closes on the 27th May so follow the link and vote now for baseball and softball.