In softball, players aren't supposed to take a lead off, but that's the only way to describe the International Softball Federation's campaign to get the jump on six other sports that have been told they're in the running for the 2016 Olympic sports program.
Softball and baseball, which in 2005 were voted off the Olympic agenda for the 2012 London Games, will be seeking reinstatement. Golf, squash, karate, seven-a-side rugby and roller sports will join them in the battle for two spots on the program for 2016. All seven sport federations received letters this week, telling them to put together their best pitch for October of 2009, when the International Olympic Committee assembles at Copenhagen.
Officials of the ISF didn't need to be told to start their engines. They've had a sophisticated campaign going since 2006, when they formed a task force to lobby for softball's return and made former IOC boss Juan Antonio Samaranch the honorary chairman. The campaign, called Back Softball, features a 10-point blueprint for getting the game back into the Olympics. It includes aggressive growth, to 150 national federations from 128 by October of 2009 and an increase of players from 8.4 million to 10.5 million around the world.
"The biggest charge against us was that we weren't a global sport, that the United States just dominated its own game," ISF spokesman Bruce Wawrzyniak said.
USA Softball player Jennie Finch hurls ball during a game against Canada in preliminary action at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece on Aug. 18, 2004. (John Lehmann/Globe and Mail)
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"It was a wakeup call. If they felt our game needed to be improved, we'll show them how much we can improve it.
"We also have a leg up on most of the sports because we get to show them those improvements on the biggest stage they have. When we go into Copenhagen, we want to be able to point back at the Beijing tournament and say our work speaks for itself — a success, with sellout crowds, good TV ratings. And people will see we raised the level of competition around the world. We want to be able to tell the IOC they need softball back in 2016."
The ISF is hitting the right notes in the area of sport politics, selling itself as access to sport for girls.
The sport has done well selling tickets, and games are almost sold out for this year's Beijing Olympics.
The campaign is even using its supporters as billboards, with a merchandise page offering hats, visors, shirts pins and videos in English and Spanish all bearing the Back Softball logo.
When baseball and softball got lopped from the 2012 Games, it left only 26 sports on the London program. Those 26 will all be put forward for the 2016 Games, and there is room for two additions or reinstatements.
"It's an understatement to say that we're serious about it," Wawrzyniak said.
"We are right now trying to finalize a progress report, a self audit. We deserve a little pat on the back. We didn't just put out the blueprint and say the job would get done by itself. We've worked hard."
Softball joined the Games in Atlanta in 1996. Baseball made its debut as a medal sport in Barcelona in 1992.
In Singapore in 2005, a two-thirds majority of IOC member votes was needed for a sport to stay on the program or to be added.
Softball slid off the agenda by one vote and baseball by three. Golf, rugby, squash, karate and roller sports were proposed for the 2012 Games and all failed to win admission.
Under a new formula approved last year, it will take a simple majority for a sport to be voted onto the program.
The sports program is fixed seven years before each Olympics.
The IOC will also select the 2016 host city during the Copenhagen session. Chicago, Madrid, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro are among the leading contenders.
Golf was last played in the Olympics in 1904, and the first and only Olympic gold medalist was a Canadian, George S. Lyon.
Rugby was last played at the 1924 Olympics. The seven-a-side format has been a popular event at the Commonwealth Games.
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