Softball Preview
The U.S. Women’s National Softball Team will look for the program’s fourth Olympic Gold Medal following the sport’s 13-year hiatus from the Olympic Games. With softball’s removal from the Olympic program following the Olympic Games Beijing 2008, both baseball and softball were added to the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 program as a part of the Olympic Agenda 2020, which encourages innovation in the Olympic program.
The No. 1 ranked team in the world, Team USA punched their ticket to the Tokyo Games by winning the 2018 World Baseball Softball Confederation Women’s Softball World Championship – the 11th overall for the program.
The U.S. has established itself as the most dominating team in international softball history, considered by many to be the favorite heading into Tokyo. Loaded with talent, a strong pitching staff and a powerful offense, Team USA will look to reclaim the gold medal from host-country Japan, who upset the Americans at the Beijing Games to hand the U.S. its first Olympic silver medal.
Members of the team were selected in October 2019 at the Olympic Team Selection Trials, led by head coach Ken Eriksen. At the helm of the program since 2011, Eriksen has guided the team to back-to-back world championship titles and Pan American gold and silver medals. Eriksen also has previous Olympic experience, serving as an assistant coach for the 2004 U.S. Olympic Softball Team, which put on one of the most dominating performances in Olympic history.
Updated on July 20, 2020. For more information, contact the sport press officer here.