GLOBAL “WORLD SOFTBALL DAY” CELEBRATIONS INCLUDE GAMES IN LAUSANNE
Rubilena Rojas – “This event underlines why the BackSoftball campaign is striking a chord with so many people around the world”
Lausanne, (Switzerland); 13th June 2009: The BackSoftball Task Force has been celebrating World Softball Day here in Lausanne today by staging the “Let’s PlayBall” softball game for employees and families of sports federations in Lausanne. There will be more on-field activity here tomorrow as well.
To promote softball and the spirit of sport the International Softball Federation, who earlier this year opened a European office at the Maison du Sport International in Lausanne, organized the game at the Dorigny Sports Centre by Lake Geneva.
The event gave seasoned players a chance to have a game and introduced softball to general sports fans, with a particular focus on engaging children by utilizing softer balls and fun practice routines devised to promote the game to the younger audience.
On-hand at the Dorigny Sports Centre were USA Olympic softball gold medalists Michele Smith (2000 & 1996) and Jessica Mendoza (2004) (silver last year), 2008 Olympic softball bronze medalist Danielle Stewart (Australia), and 2008 softball Olympian Rubilena Rojas (Venezuela), along with members of the BackSoftball Task Force, including two more international softball athletes, Gergana Handjiyska (Bulgaria) and Lynn Alexander (South Africa).
Rojas, a BackSoftball Athlete Ambassador, said, “This has been a great opportunity to play softball with other sports federations and is a fitting way to celebrate World Softball Day. Some of the participants had clearly played the game before but there were plenty who have never picked up a bat and the speed with which they picked up the basics exemplified how easy the game is to learn. This event underlines why the BackSoftball campaign is striking a chord with so many people around the world.”
Frederic Defroidmont, a real estate consultant from Lausanne, said, “Taking part in the softball game today has been great for us and our families. It’s one of those sports that’s quick and easy to learn and that makes it attractive to so many different age groups. I’ve heard a lot about softball establishing offices in Lausanne and that tells me how much the sport is developing in Europe – and its popularity explains why the BackSoftball campaign has touched a chord with so many people. Good luck softball!”
This is the fifth consecutive year that World Softball Day is being celebrated, with the date coinciding with the day in 1991 when the announcement was made that softball would be added to the program of the Summer Olympics starting with the 1996 Games in Atlanta.
The celebrations go far beyond Lausanne though. In conjunction with World Softball Day 2009, events are taking place around the world, focusing on the BackSoftball campaign, which aims to convince the International Olympic Committee that softball should return to the Olympic Programme in 2016.
The “Lets PlayBall” event started a weekend of softball in Lausanne with another game to be played tomorrow (June 14) at SportNet2009 where families from Lausanne-based sports federations will come together for a sports day with softball one of the most prominent events on the programme.
The BackSoftball team in Lausanne will make its presentation to the IOC Executive Board on Monday, emphasizing the progress and development the sport has made in recent years and the opportunities it provides in under-developed and troubled areas of the world.
Softball was first featured in the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996 and last year’s competition in Beijing was hugely successful with a total attendance close to 180,000 and a continuation of the sport’s excellent record of no positive doping tests at any of the Olympics since the sport’s debut on the world’s stage 12 years earlier.
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 or +44 7802 412424