The Obama-Olympic Link: A Pitch For Softball, Too?
By Philip Hersh
LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Not only is Barack Obama viewed as an asset to Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid, he can help women’s softball in its battle to return to the Olympics.
At least that’s the way France’s daily sports paper, L’Equipe, sees it.
A story in Wednesday’s editions of L’Equipe about the seven sports trying to get onto the Olympic program was illustrated with just one photo: Obama at the June 6 rally in Chicago after the IOC named the city one of four finalists for the 2016 Summer Games.
Said the photo caption: “Even before being elected President of the United States, Barack Obama had supported the Olympic candidature of his city. A serious lift for the city in Illinois, which is also the land of. . .softball.”
A sidebar to the main story, headlined, “Obama, the softball asset,” notes not only some specific backing Obama already has given the bid (including his video message shown at the annual meeting of the European Olympic Committees in Istanbul last month) but his potential for boosting softball.
“(In Istanbul), he appealed for votes for his city, explaining that the Games could help close the gaps between his country and the rest of the world (created) under the administration of George Bush,” L’Equipe wrote. “At the same time, he gave a push to softball, a sport born in Chicago Thanksgiving Day 1887.”
Women’s softball made its Olympic debut in 1996 and its swan song this year in Beijing, having been dropped from the program in an IOC vote three years ago.
Its first chance to return would be at the 2016 Games.
The IOC will decide in October — at the same meeting when it picks the 2016 host — whether to add any sports. Softball, baseball (also eliminated after 2008), golf, rugby sevens, squash, karate and roller sports all are campaigning for an Olympic place. No more than two can make it, and the IOC could choose to add one or none.
