Baseball/Softball Receives 2020 Olympic Boost by Staging Largest Ever Youth World Championship
July 30, 2013
The baseball/softball bid for the 2020 Olympic Games has been handed a boost after staging the largest ever Youth World Championships.
The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) announced that over 10,000 fans descended on the final of the U12 Baseball World Cup in Chinese Taipei.
With the sport bidding to be in the 2020 Games and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) putting extra focus on engaging youngsters, the popularity of the World Championship has been met with delight from the WBSC.
WBSC co-presidents Riccardo Fraccari and Don Porter said in a statement: “The WBSC has a vision to work with the IOC leadership in a commitment to community to use baseball and softball as vehicles for the Olympic Movement to provide an opportunity for all boys and girls–the world’s future leaders-to participate, learn, seek a healthy lifestyle and become empowered through sport, which will lead to a stronger society.
“Especially in a time when there are so many different choices for young people and with an uncertain and challenging economic climate, we strongly believe that the ongoing appeal and access of baseball and softball to young people around the world will help to strengthen the Olympic Movement if the sports are included in the 2020 Olympic Games.
The U12 Baseball World Cup is part of the WBSC’s global development strategy to spread baseball and softball across the globe and attract future generations to sport.
The joint baseball/softball bid faces competition from squash and wrestling in their attempt to be included in the 2020 Olympic Games.
All three sports will discover their fate in September at the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires.
“The Olympic Games is the greatest goal of every athlete and highest honour for every sport, and we will place our full resources and passion for the Games at the service of the Olympic Movement if selected to be part of the 2020 Games,” Fraccari and Porter added.