Baseball in the Olympics

Baseball was one of the Olympic sports as a competition for men from 1992 to 2008, but had already made several Olympic appearances as a demonstration sport. On August 4, 2016, the IOC decided to put baseball back into the Olympic program for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

From 1996 to 2008, the baseball variant softball was an Olympic competition for women.

history

A first unofficial baseball tournament took place at the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis. In 1912 an official demonstration competition took place for the first time with a game between the USA and hosts Sweden . In 1936 two American teams played against each other. In Helsinki in 1952 there was a demonstration competition in Pesäpallo , a Finnish sport related to baseball. In baseball there were only demonstration competitions again in 1956 and 1964 , when Australia and Japan hosted two nations with a strong baseball tradition. With over 100,000 spectators, the Melbourne Cricket Ground game was the most spectated baseball game ever.

Baseball has been part of the summer games since 1984, initially twice as a demonstration competition. On October 13, 1986, the IOC included baseball as the 25th sport in the program of the Olympic Games and was played as an Olympic sport from 1992 . However, the audience interest remained relatively low, on the one hand because baseball is only widespread as a marginal sport, especially in many European countries, on the other hand because the nations did not compete with their best teams. Until 1996 only players with amateur status could compete; But even after that, many of the best players were missing from the national teams because the Olympic Games fall in the middle of the season of Major League Baseball and other professional leagues.

At the 117th IOC meeting in Singapore in 2005, it was decided to remove baseball from the Olympic program at the 2012 Olympic Games . An application in the program committee at the 118th IOC meeting in Turin to resume baseball for 2012 failed in 2006 with just 46 to 42 votes.

Baseball was also an option for the 2016 Olympic Games , together with softball, but lost to golf and rugby. In the run-up to the decision for the 2020 Olympic sports , the previously separate world associations for baseball and softball merged at the end of 2012 to form the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC). That helped both sports: on September 8, 2013, the IOC General Assembly decided against baseball / softball and included the sport of wrestling , which the Executive Committee had already canceled , in the Olympic program for 2020 and 2024; however, baseball was added to the 2020 program as one of five new sports on August 3, 2016.

Competitions

Baseball / Softball - Current competitions
competition	12	20th	24	28	32	36	48	52	56	60	64	68	72	76	80	84	88	92	96	00	04	08	12	16	20th	Games
	Men
Baseball men	D.					D.		D.	D.		D.					D.	D.	•	•	•	•	•			•	6th
Baseball / Softball - Current competitions
competition	12	20th	24	28	32	36	48	52	56	60	64	68	72	76	80	84	88	92	96	00	04	08	12	16	20th	Games
	Women
Softball women																			•	•	•	•			•	6th
Number of competitions																		1	2	2	2	2			2

Medalist

Olympia	gold	silver	bronze
1992 Barcelona	Cuba	Chinese Taipei	Japan
1996 Atlanta	Cuba	Japan	United States
2000 Sydney	United States	Cuba	South Korea
2004 Athens	Cuba	Australia	Japan
2008 Beijing	South Korea	Cuba	United States

→ List of Olympic champions in baseball

Medal table

space	country	gold	silver	bronze	total
1	Cuba	3	2	-	5
2	United States	1	-	2	3
3	South Korea	1	-	1	2
4th	Japan	-	1	2	3
5	Australia	-	1	-	1
	Chinese Taipei	-	1	-	1

Olympic tournament

qualification

In addition to the host nation, which is automatically qualified for the Olympic tournament, the remaining seven teams are determined by the qualification. For 2008, two American and one Asian and one European participants will be determined for the continental championships. Then the best teams from Africa and Oceania play against the second and third placed teams from Asia and Europe and the third and fourth from America in a qualifying tournament for the remaining three participants.

For Europe, Italy have participated four times, the Netherlands three times and Spain once. The Netherlands qualified as European champions for the 2008 Summer Games . Germany (replacing the UK team, which was not participating due to lack of money) and Spain took part in the qualifying tournament in Taiwan in March 2008. Canada, Taiwan and Korea reached the qualification via the tournament and thus took part in the Olympic tournament in Beijing alongside China, the USA, Cuba, the Netherlands and Japan.

Tournament mode

At the Olympic Games, all eight teams initially compete against each other in a round robin round. The four best placed reach the semi-finals, where the first against the fourth and the second against the third. The winners reach the final, the losers fight for the bronze medal in the game for third place.

regulate

• The squad of each team consists of 24 players.
• Games are ended prematurely if a team leads with more than 10 runs after seven innings .
• Aluminum clubs were banned after 1996.
• For 2008, against the resistance of individual national associations, a new tiebreaker rule for extra time was introduced at short notice: From the 11th inning, each team starts offensive with two runners on first and second base. In addition, at the beginning of the 11th inning, the team can freely choose who comes from the lineup to hit, the two previous batter from the lineup then occupy the first two bases as runners. In further innings that are possible if the tie continues, the order of the batter from the lineup will be respected again.

Web links

• Baseball as an Olympic sport for the International Olympic Committee

Individual evidence

1. ↑ FULL STORY News about this commission ( Memento from October 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ IOC session do not consider baseball and softball for reinstatement into the 2012 Olympic Program ( Memento from April 28, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ Golf and rugby will be Olympic in 2016. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 5, 2013 ; Retrieved October 19, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ One round further. Retrieved June 4, 2013 . 
5. ↑ A shoulder win for the wrestlers. Retrieved January 3, 2014 . 
6. ↑ Olympics: Five new sports confirmed for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games - BBC Sport. In: bbc.com. British Broadcasting Corporation , August 4, 2016, accessed June 19, 2017 . 
7. ↑ GB BASEBALL TEAM FORCED TO WITHDRAW FROM SECONDARY OLYMPIC QUALIFIER. British Baseball Federation, February 20, 2013, archived from the original on March 22, 2014 ; accessed on March 22, 2014 . 
8. ↑ Olympic qualification 2008 at the IBAF ( Memento from May 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive )