体育-VOA常速Softball Bows Out of Olympics After Beijing.docVIP

体育-VOA常速:Softball Bows Out of Olympics After Beijing The United States Womens National Softball team has won every gold medal since the sport was added to the Olympic program at the 1996 Atlanta Games. They have dominated international competitions like the Pan American Games and World Championships. But as VOAs Steve Schy reports, softball will play its last Olympic innings in Beijing after being removed from the program starting with the 2012 Games in London. ?? Members of the U.S. womens team have been devastated by the International Olympic Committees 2005 decision to vote softball off the program. Making the ruling even harder to swallow for some was the fact that softball missed getting the two-thirds majority needed to remain in the Summer Games by a single vote. The success of the U.S. team has spurred a huge growth in softballs popularity in colleges, high schools and youth leagues. But star pitcher Jennie Finch told VOA Sports the IOCs decision has been decimating(大批杀害) to the sport.　 Millions of dreams have been shattered because of it, said Jennie Finch. You look even at my teammates, Monica Abbot, Caitlin Lowe, Andrea Duran - these are first-time Olympic gold medalists. They can have three Olympic gold medals. And then you look below that, you look at the college athletes today. They could be in the Games for 2012; you are taking away those dreams. But Finch says the impact goes far beyond the dreams of American players. Not only those, but the dreams of the world, she said. You know, I think Venezuela qualifying for the Olympics, what more does that say about our sport? Cuba, all of these dreams in South America, that is their one ticket out. That is their one outlet, their ball and their glove and their ball field. So continue to keep that and continue to keep dreams alive. The one thing that gets you every time is you walk in these stadiums and they say, The IOC took my softball dreams away. You know, and that is like a knife to the heart. That