BACKSOFTBALL DELEGATION TO PROMOTE OLYMPIC CAMPAIGN AT AWSM CONVENTION
BackSoftball Task Force Co-Chair Donna de Varona –
“Softball has made huge inroads in promoting sport among women”
Plant City, Florida (USA); 21st May 2009: A delegation from the BackSoftball campaign to get the sport reinstated on the Olympic Programme will attend the Association of Women in Sports Media (AWSM) convention in Philadelphia this weekend to promote the huge amount of work softball is undertaking with women in sport.
Former Olympian Kaila Holtz, who pitched for Canada at the 2004 Olympics in Athens and the 2006 International Softball Federation XI Women's World Championship in Beijing, will be joined Bruce Wawrzyniak, the ISF Director of Communications. Holtz is also a member of the Board of Directors for Softball Canada, that country’s national governing body for the sport.
During the course of the three-day conference, the BackSoftball team will tell other convention goers how the ISF shares the International Olympic Committee’s vision to make female participation in sport and sports administration a priority.
Last year the ISF instituted the Athlete Ambassadors program, which gives a voice to and provides an active role for female softball players from around the world in helping the world governing body work toward the reinstatement of the sport to the 2016 Olympic Games programme. Two-time Olympic softball gold medalist Michele Smith is the chair of the group.
Two-time Olympic softball athlete Jessica Mendoza (USA), a BackSoftball Athlete Ambassador herself, took over on January 1 as the president of the Women's Sports Foundation, further underlining the ISF’s commitment to BackSoftball’s ten point blueprint, with point #4 being: "Place even greater emphasis on opportunities for women in sport."
BackSoftball Task Force Co-Chair Donna de Varona, who is also a member of the IOC’s Women in Sports Commission and a former Emmy award-winning ABC sports broadcaster, said, “The AWSM does a great job promoting the involvement of women in sports media. Softball has made huge inroads in promoting sport among women and the sellout crowds at the Olympics in Beijing last summer and great broadcasting figures underline why softball should return to the Games in 2016.”
ISF President Don Porter added, “The ISF has been a huge promoter of sport for all, with a particular focus on women from parts of the world where team sports are not particularly accessible. We also have a large number of female administrators at all levels of the game across the world. For instance, ISF Deputy Secretary General Low Beng Choo (Malaysia) will be one of the BackSoftball delegates who present to the IOC at the Executive Board meeting in Lausanne next month.”
The ISF is committed to growing the sport worldwide in a bid to target new players at every level, with particular focus on women and youth.
Softball’s exemplary anti-doping record in top level competition is further reason why softball is becoming so popular throughout the world.
Softball was first featured in the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996 and last year’s competition in Beijing was very successful with a total attendance close to 180,000 and a continuation of the sport’s excellent record of no positive doping tests in women’s international softball since testing began in 1982.
A final decision on which sports will be added to the current roster of 26 at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games will be made at the 121st IOC Session in Copenhagen in October this year.
Further information is available in the OTHER DOCUMENTS section of www.BackSoftball.com.
For more information please contact ISF Director of Communications Bruce Wawrzyniak at brucew@internationalsoftball.com, +1 813 864 0100 or +1 813 453 8762 or David Alexander at David.Alexander@Calacus.com, +44 7802 412424