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?”
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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