The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) today announced that the winner of The World Games 2022 softball tournament will be named world champion in 2022. Further, the 2021 WBSC Women's Softball World Cup will be postponed to 2023.
"With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and the postponement of the Olympic Games to 2021 and The World Games to 2022, we wanted to ensure softball athletes had an opportunity for world-class competition in each of the next three years," said WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari.
The World Games 2022 will be held from 7-17 July in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. Women's softball is one of the 30+ sports to be featured during the 11-day multi-sport event. World No. 1 USA (host), No. 2 Japan (wild card), No. 3 Canada, No. 5 Mexico, No. 6 Chinese Taipei, No. 7 China and No. 8 Australia have qualified for the event through last year's Olympic Qualifiers. The winner of the European Championship 2020, which has been postponed due to the coronavirus, will join them and participate in the eight-team competition.
Softball was last featured at The World Games in 2013, in Cali, Colombia.
The World Games is a multi-sport event staged every four years by the International World Games Association under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee. The 11th edition of The World Games will be held in Birmingham, Alabama, USA, 7-17 July 2022. 3,600 athletes from over 30 sports and 100 countries will take part in The World Games.
