Softball at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing took place over a ten-day period starting August 12 and culminating in the medal finals on August 21. All games were played at the Fengtai Softball Field. Olympic softball is a women only competition, with men competing in the similar sport of baseball.

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Quick Facts Softball at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, Venue ...

Softball at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
Pictogram used to identify softball at the 2008 Games
Venue	Fengtai Softball Field
Dates	August 12–21, 2008
Teams	8
Medalists
Japan  United States  Australia
← 2004 2020 →

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This is the last time Softball was contested as a core sport at the Olympics, as the International Olympic Committee voted to remove baseball from the program in the 2012 Olympics.^[1] Along with baseball, softball was rejected for inclusion in the 2016 Summer Olympics at the IOC's meeting in October 2009.^[2] However, Softball was contested at the 2020 Games and will be included in the at the 2028 games as an additional sport.^[3][4]

Eight teams compete in the Olympic softball tournament, and the competition consists of two rounds. The preliminary round follows a round robin format, where each of the teams plays all the other teams once. Following this, the top four teams advance to a page playoff system round consisting of two semifinal games, and finally the bronze and gold medal games.

The eight teams in the Olympic softball tournament will qualify through a series of tournaments. China, as the host nation, is guaranteed one automatic entry. The top four finalists at the 2006 Softball World Championships will be qualified for the Olympic tournament. Finally, there will be continental qualifying tournaments for Europe/Africa, Pan-America, and Asia/Oceania, with the winners of each tournament earning a spot in the Olympic tournament.

More information Date, Event ...

Date	Event	Location	Qualifier
	Host Nation		China
Aug. 20–29, 2006	2006 ISF World Championship	Beijing	United States  Japan  Australia  Canada
June 9–16, 2007	Europe & Africa Olympic Qualifying Tournament	Trieste	Netherlands
Feb. 1–5, 2007	Asian & Oceania Olympic Qualifying Tournament	Tainan City	Chinese Taipei1
Aug. 19–24, 2007	Pan-American Olympic Qualifying Tournament	Valencia	Venezuela

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^Note 1 : Chinese Taipei is the official IOC designation for the state officially referred to as the Republic of China, more commonly known as Taiwan. (See also political status of Taiwan for details.)

The loser of 1&2 seed game will play the winner of the 3&4 seed game in the bronze medal match. The loser of the bronze medal match wins the bronze medal while the winner goes on to play the winner of the 1&2 seed game for the gold medal in the gold medal match.

	Semifinals					Bronze medal game					Gold medal game
	1	United States	4								1	United States	1
	2	Japan	1								2	Japan	3
						3	Australia	3
						2	Japan	4
	3	Australia	5
	4	Canada	3

Semi finals

More information Team, R ...

Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E  United States 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 4 6 0  Japan 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 3 0 WP: Monica Abbott(3-0)   LP: Yukiko Ueno(3-1)   Sv: Cat Osterman Home runs: USA: Crystl Bustos(5) JPN: None

Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E  Australia 0 1 1 1 0 2 0 5 4 2  Canada 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 3 5 2 WP: Tanya Harding(3-1)   LP: Lauren Bay(2-3) Home runs: AUS: Sandy Lewis(1), Danielle Stewart(2) CAN: None

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Bronze medal match

Winner advances to gold medal match. Loser wins bronze medal.

More information Team, R ...

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	R	H	E
Australia	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	3	7	2
Japan	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	4	11	1
WP: Yukiko Ueno(4-1)   LP: Tanya Harding(3-2) Home runs: AUS: Kerry Wyborn, JPN: Megu Hirose

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Gold medal match

More information Team, R ...

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
Japan	0	0	1	1	0	0	1	3	4	0
United States	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	5	2
WP: Yukiko Ueno(5-1)   LP: Cat Osterman(3-1) Home runs: JPN: Eri Yamada (2) USA: Crystl Bustos (6)

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