Softball at the 2008 Summer Olympics
| Softball at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
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Pictogram used to identify softball at the 2008 Games
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| Venue | Fengtai Softball Field | |||||||||
| Dates | August 12–21 | |||||||||
| Teams | 8 | |||||||||
| Medalists | ||||||||||
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 Japan
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 United States
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 Australia
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| Qualified for the semifinals | |
| Eliminated |
Softball at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing took place over a ten-day period starting August 12 and culminating in the medal finals on August 21. All games were played at the Fengtai Softball Field. Olympic softball is a women only competition, with men competing in the similar sport of baseball.
This is the most most recently contested softball tournament in Olympic history, as the International Olympic Committee voted to remove baseball from the program in the 2012 Olympics. Many theories abound, but the most common one is that the U.S. teams are simply too dominant in the sport, having won gold in the previous three Olympics and winning them convincingly. Along with baseball, softball was rejected for inclusion in the 2016 Summer Olympics at the IOC's meeting in October 2009. However, following a 2016 IOC vote, softball will again be conducted for the 2020 Games.
In one of the major upsets of the 2008 Summer Olympics, Japan defeated U.S. 3-1 to win the gold medal. The Americans have won gold and dominated their opponents in the previous three Olympics. This is the only Olympic Softball Gold Medal that the U.S. has not won. Their dominance was cited as one of the reasons why the IOC voted to drop the sport from the 2012 Olympics.
Naho Emoto
Motoko Fujimoto
Megu Hirose
Emi Inui
Sachiko Ito
Ayumi Karino
Satoko Mabuchi
Yukiyo Mine
Masumi Mishina
Rei Nishiyama
Hiroko Sakai
Rie Sato
Mika Someya
Yukiko Ueno
Eri Yamada
...
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