Sport left out of Olympics for 2012
Aug 21, 2008 - 08:57 AM
Brad Kelly
BEIJING -- There were tears shed by members of the Canadian women’s softball team when it was over on Wednesday.
Those tears were twofold really: their dream of an Olympic medal ended with a semifinal loss to Australia, and as a sport, it’s the end for softball, dropped from the docket of the 2012 Games in London.
Wendy Dobbin, an Oshawa resident who served as an assistant coach with the team, shed some perspective on the plight of softball moving forward. Despite not gaining recognition from the International Olympic Committee, Dobbin hopes the success of the team this past week will continue to help grow the sport nationally.
“We want softball to live on. We want softball to be strong in Canada,” she said following a 5-3 setback to Australia that left Canada just out of the medals in fourth. “If our success this week has helped one player decide to stick around a little longer or play the game, then we can call that a success as well.”
Canada jumped out of the gates at this tournament like gangbusters, going 3-1 before dropping the next five in a row. The fourth place finish is the highest for a Canadian team at the Olympics, after a fifth in Athens four years ago and an eighth back in 2000.
“I am so proud of this group, it’s incredible,” said Dobbin. “We came into it wondering how much more could we do to prepare and there wasn’t anything more we could have done. I think that’s a comforting feeling.
“Everybody says the Olympics is much more than you can ever be prepared for, and everyone who had been through it before said once you are on the ball diamond, it’s a ball tournament. At times this week I think we let that Olympic thing creep in a little bit.”
As for the highlight of the Olympics for Dobbin, she didn’t hesitate in commending the team for its camaraderie and the tight bond that had developed the past four years. Particularly the last eight months as the team travelled extensively in preparation for Beijing.
“The fight and how invested everybody was,” she said. “You are never going to be around that, and very few environments do you get everybody invested in the same thing, and invested to the level everybody was.”
-- Sports Editor Brad Kelly is in Beijing covering the Olympics for Metroland Media Group
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