Softball

Sport Overview

Softball at Los Angeles 2028

Venue: OKC Softball Park

Competition Dates: July 23-29 (Days 9-15)

Events: 1 (1 women)

Softball is said to have been invented as an indoor sport in Chicago in 1887. Following a Harvard-Yale football game, a Yale booster picked up a boxing glove and threw it at a Harvard fan who picked up a stick and swung it at the glove. A reporter who saw the incident turned it into a game, tying the glove into a ball and marking lines on the floor with chalk. By the next decade, the game had moved outdoors under the name kitten ball. It wasn’t until 1926 that the name softball was first used in Colorado.

The spread of softball around the world was helped by American servicemen during World War II. The first world championship was held in 1965.

At the Olympic Games, baseball and softball are considered one sport, with baseball being a men’s event and softball being a women’s event. 

In softball, as in baseball, while one team assumes nine defensive positions (three in the outfield, four around the infield bases, catcher, pitcher), the other team sends its own nine players to bat in a pre-determined lineup. The objective for the batter is to hit the ball thrown by the pitcher and advance around three bases to home plate, scoring a run. When the defending team gets three of the batting team’s players out, the teams switch.

There are some notable differences between softball and baseball, however. Softball games are shorter than baseball games, played to seven innings rather than nine. The ball used is larger, less dense, and must be pitched underhand. The field and diamond are smaller with only 60 feet between the bases (versus 90 feet in baseball) and the distance from the pitching rubber to home plate is just 43 feet (versus 60 feet 6 inches in baseball).

Canada’s Olympic Softball History (Pre-LA 2028)

Canada has played in all five official Olympic softball tournaments held before LA 2028. Canada won the bronze medal at Tokyo 2020, posting a 3-2 record in the round robin and then defeating Mexico 3-2 in the bronze medal game. Canada had previously placed fifth at Atlanta 1996, eighth at Sydney 2000, fifth at Athens 2004, and fourth at Beijing 2008 after a semifinal loss to Australia. 

The Canadian women have won 10 medals at the Pan American Games, including gold at Toronto 2015 following four straight silver medals. Softball has been featured at the Pan Am Games since 1979. 

Olympic Softball History

Softball made its official Olympic debut at Atlanta 1996 and was featured in the next three Games before it was removed from the program. The World Baseball Softball Confederation was established in April 2013 as a joint international governing body for both sports aiming to return to the Olympic program.

Softball made its return to the Olympic program at Tokyo 2020, the result of an initiative that gives organizing committees the chance to include sports which are of great cultural importance or popularity in the host nation. After an absence at Paris 2024, softball was included again at LA 2028 as an OCOG-Proposed Sport.