The University of New Orleans became the place, where a team of 19 legendary American softball players with 36 Olympic medals in total reunited as a part of the celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the inclusion of softball in The Olympic games. As you know the sport was excluded of the games in the previous two editions, but it will return to the program in 2020!
Even though the temperature was about 4 degrees Celsius, this couldn’t stop the legends play their favourite sport! The three-time Olympic champion C. Bustos even said that “Unless it is snowing or raining, every day is a good day for softball”. So, the cold weather only motivated the players show their best.
To continue with, the players also posed for a lot of photos and signed autographs for their biggest fans. Everybody was in a good mood and the players were even joking with the silver medal they won in 2008 in Beijing.
The described as the most popular softball player – Jennie Finch (she took part in the last two softball Olympic tournaments) said that all the players thought they were still gold-medal winners.
There is the possibility for a return to the Olympic stage for one of these players – the youngest of all, who took part in the Olympics in 2008 – Monica Abbott. She is now 31 years old and is still playing softball professionally, so she can be included in the US team for The Olympics in 2020!
In conclusion, we can say that the amateur softball has constantly been growing, even though the sport was excluded from the last 2 editions of the Olympic games. The proofs are these two competitions, which have become among the most interesting sporting events: The Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma and the World Cup of Softball (which is held during the summer in America).