Participation in Olympics is the dream of every sportsman because it marks the highest level in games. When preparing for Olympics, sports people will go to any level in ensuring they emerge winners in their respective categories. In this regard, it is common to hear of people who want certain sports to be included in the Olympics.
On the contrary, very few people will support an option to eliminate any sport from the Olympics. Softball was once included in the Olympics but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has scraped it citing various reasons. Consequently, many people have questioned the legality of the reasons given by the IOC and demanded that the sport be included once again in the Olympics.
To begin with, players who used softball not only as a source of income, but also as a way of life are in trouble if softball is eliminated from the Olympics. It should be noted that being the highest achievement of any game, inclusion of a sport in the Olympics encourage sports people to train and governments to invest in the sport (Dwyre par.1).
On the contrary, elimination will achieve directly the opposite. Sponsors will stop their support and there will be no money to even pay the players. On the same note, a lot of investment has been made in the game of softball by both the government and private sectors (Gitlin and Karen 50). However, elimination of the sport from Olympics will demoralize people hence reduce the number of players. This will reduce the number of people who use the facilities thus leading to underutilization of the facilities.
Furthermore, young girls who always look at professional players as their role models and motivators will have their dreams shattered. It should be noted that though other softball competitions exist, the inability to be part of Olympics will limit how far one can go. Therefore, professional players will be disillusioned and unwilling to encourage the young players to continue training (Taylor 62). As a result, young players will get an impression that their dreams can never be realized which will highly disappoint them.
Additionally, softball is not only found in the United States of America, but also in South Africa and several other developing countries (Gitlin and Karen 51). As a result, softball also helps in unifying the world just like any other sport. With the elimination of this sport from the Olympics, ties between some countries will be weakened especially if they had resulted from softball (Taylor 64).
Moreover, it has been argued that there is some politics at play regarding the elimination of softball from the Olympics. United States of America boasts of majority wins since the inclusion of softball into the Olympics. Unfortunately, a lot of members of the IOC are Europeans (Gitlin and Karen 51). In this regard, politics or even stereotyping cannot be ruled out as being among the reasons why softball has been eliminated. To avoid conclusion by people that politics is in play, the IOC should allow the return of softball (Dwyre par.3).
Nurturing young talents and enabling people maximally utilize their talents is one of the aims of IOC. However, elimination of softball from Olympic Games is a counter-productive move (Gitlin and Karen 52). The move will not only shatter and throw young talents into oblivion but will also dismantle the currently discovered talents.
On the same note, IOC claims that softball quality has declined below the threshold of Olympics. It is important to note that without any major challenge to prepare for, the quality of the game will continue declining. Consequently, rather than helping softball fraternity, eliminating the sport from Olympics has actually dampened all hopes of the game.
Works Cited
Dwyre, Bill. “Softball’s Torchbearers Hope their Olympic Flame can be Reignited.” Los Angeles Times 27th July 2012. Print.
Gitlin, Marty, and Karen Johns. Girls Play to Win Softball. Chicago: Norwood House Press, 2011. Print.
Taylor, Tracy. “Gendering Sport: The Development of Netball in Australia.” Journal of the Australian Society for Sports History 18.1 (2001): 57-74. Print.