Really? No, really?
— Adso of Melk (@PalimpsestMan) July 13, 2016
Jennie Finch is a Collegiate World Series champ and Olympic medalist in softball. She’s understandably very passionate when it comes to her sport.
Unfortunately, she’s also … kind of wrong:
— Jennie Finch (@JennieFinch) July 13, 2016
When the Olympics canceled softball, it erased years of progress for women. https://t.co/OK6XUFBz31 by @JennieFinch pic.twitter.com/7YzjStACUq
— Vox (@voxdotcom) July 13, 2016
Still, to this day, the most common question I get from young girls is, “Why?” It’s tough to not be able to give a quality explanation, because there isn’t one. The International Olympic Committee is notoriously secretive and didn’t give a reason publicly — though many people suspect it’s because the United States was just too dominant in softball.
It was a heart-wrenching decision. It was hard to even believe, or swallow, or imagine. I thought, “How is this even possible? How can they just take out our sport?” I just remember thinking, “This cannot be real.”
I felt like we were taken back 100 years, to a time when women were discouraged from becoming athletes. It was like, “Wait a minute. What happened to all this progress that we made? Women paved the way to finally get us here, and now the sport is being discontinued? How is this possible?”
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Better question: How is it possible to believe that taking softball out of the Olympics set women back 100 years? Surely women’s worth is based on more than just a sport, no?
@SBNation @JennieFinch pic.twitter.com/i6NRfLKOCT
— lil smoochi kvrt (@Kvrbe) July 13, 2016
https://twitter.com/hboulware/status/753340893927661568
@voxdotcom @JennieFinch
Yep. When softball was cancelled, I noticed my skirts were down past my ankles, and my hair in a bun.— Clowns All Around ????? Me (@AllyGeighter) July 13, 2016
https://twitter.com/H2oDAG/status/753343395607801856
What Finch fails to mention is that when the Olympics axed softball after the 2008 games, they axed something else, too:
https://twitter.com/Bootless92/status/753347983920525312
Oh FFS they killed baseball too but you don't see MLB players bitching about it. @hboulware @voxdotcom @JennieFinch
— Ryan Jones (@RyanGRAA) July 13, 2016
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