We normally focus on baseball here, but this is a very worthy cause to highlight.\u00c2\u00a0 As with the men’s national baseball team, the national softball teams are feeling the full effects of the two sports being ousted from the Olympics.\u00c2\u00a0 There is no longer any public funding to back their efforts and the women’s fastpitch softball team now finds itself in the same position as the GB baseball team did back in early 2008: they’ve earned\u00c2\u00a0the right to go to\u00c2\u00a0a major international tournament, but may be denied that place due to lack of\u00c2\u00a0funds.\u00c2\u00a0 The baseball team was sadly forced to withdraw from the 2008\u00c2\u00a0Final Olympic\u00c2\u00a0Qualifying tournament for that very reason.\u00c2\u00a0 The following appeal may stop that happening to the women’s fastpitch softball team:<\/p>\n
“YOUR ONLINE VOTE CAN HELP THE GREAT BRITAIN WOMEN’S SOFTBALL TEAM GET TO THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS!<\/strong>
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\nThe Great Britain Women’s Fastpitch Softball Team earned a place in the 2010 Softball World Championships by finishing second in European Championships this past summer, the team’s highest-ever European placing.<\/p>\nBut the team receives no public funding because softball is no longer an Olympic sport. Players and staff had to pay their own way to compete for their country at the European Championships, but the cost of competing in the World Championships, which will probably be held in North America, is beyond what the players and their families can afford.
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\nSo the team has entered a British Airways contest called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Great Britons\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, where the prize could be 16 desperately-needed free flights that can get the majority of our players and staff to the World Championships. Now the team has been shortlisted along with seven other entries, and the winner will be determined by public vote.<\/p>\n