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There is little
soft about Olympic softball. One pitch at Atlanta was
clocked at 118 kilometres per hour (73.3 mph). Considering
the pitcher stands 13.1 metres (43 feet) from the batter,
and the hardest-throwing baseball pitchers throw 160
kilometres per hour (99.4 mph) from 18.4 metres (60 feet),
softball batters have essentially the same time to react as
their baseball counterparts.
In addition,
a softball is as hard as a baseball. The only difference
being the size; a softball is 30.4cm (12 inches) in
circumference and a baseball is 22.8cm (9 inches).
Eight teams
compete at the Olympic Games in the discipline of women's
fast pitch. The host country automatically has a spot
because they are the host team, and the other seven teams
qualify through world championships and various regional
Olympic Qualifiers.
The teams
compete in a single pool, playing each of the other seven
once. The top four teams advance to the semi-finals, with
the first-placed team playing the second-placed team and the
third playing the fourth. The loser between teams 1 and 2
then plays the winner between teams 3 and 4, with that
winner playing the winner between teams 1 and 2 for the
championship.
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