Olympic softball final: a game for the ages?

Yukiko Ueno is standing on the small hill in the stadium with the ball in hand.

And when she has the ball, you still have to look carefully.

On good days, even at 39, she throws him faster than any other woman in Japan, probably even faster than anyone else in the world.

Once, 128 kilometers per hour were measured.

Now she bobs from one foot to the other.

She's about to throw.

And try to do what they did 13 years ago.

Christopher Meltzer

Sports correspondent in Munich.

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It's Tuesday evening in Yokohama, a city south of Tokyo. Outside the stadium the crickets screech in the trees, inside the softball players from Japan and the United States. In the final of the Olympic tournament, the Japanese have been leading 1-0 for a few minutes. In the press box, the otherwise always quiet TV commentators suddenly speak a little louder into their microphones. You can feel what you can rarely feel in the halls and stadiums at the moment: excitement.

In the first days of the Olympic Games, the people of Japan experienced some extraordinary sporting moments. But have you ever been as excited as at this moment? There are more local reporters in the press box than anywhere else. You may have guessed that tonight you will be able to watch a game for the ages. And that's really meant in the literal sense. Because the game you are looking at may have a future in your living environment. But not in the Olympic one.

If you take the Olympic shuttle bus from Tokyo to Yokohama on this final day and look out the window, you will see children and young people throwing, hitting and catching the ball in the parks and on the meadows. In Japan there is a general concern for the next generation, but that does not seem to apply to baseball or softball, the most popular game in the country. Allegedly a professor from the United States sparked the excitement. In the late 19th century, Horace Wilson taught English at the University of Tokyo - and then baseball in his spare time. To this day, only men play that around the world. Softball is the name of the women's variant. The main difference: the ball is slightly larger and is thrown from below instead of from above. And yet Yukiko Ueno throws him at 128 kilometers per hour.

Needless to say in Japan. The pitcher from Fukuoka threw the ball in the summer of 2008 when the Japanese beat the Americans in the final of the Beijing Olympics. Since then, everyone in Japan has known who Yukiko Ueno is. On the biggest stage of the sport - in softball there is no exceptional league like the North American MLB in baseball - you couldn't see them afterwards. Even before the Summer Games, the officials of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had decided to remove softball from the program again, although it had only been included in Atlanta in 1996. They had seen three tournaments - and three times the same outcome: gold for the United States. The Americans couldn't go on winning because they never lost.

It did happen in Beijing, but by then it was too late. Cat Ostermann played for the favorites at the time. What Yukiko Ueno is to Japan, she is to the United States. Actually, she had already stopped. Now she is back at the age of 38. For your country and your sport. And above all for their revenge. On Tuesday afternoon, when the big game of rematch has not yet started, Kelsey Harshman is sobbing in the press room next to the stadium. She just won the bronze game with Canada against Mexico. Now she says in a low voice why softball is so special to her and so many women. "I hope we were able to show that to the world and especially to the IOC," she says. Then she wipes her tears on her mask.

Her trainer, Mark Smith, sits in the chair next to her. He will stop after 13 years. He does not speak conciliatory, but accusatory. After returning to Japan, softball has already been removed from the Paris 2024 program. And Smith believes: Without the coronavirus, things would have turned out differently.

It could well be that 30,000 people would have been in the stadium in Yokohama on Tuesday evening. It could be that they would have cheered every throw from Yukiko Ueno, who almost didn't pause and played almost perfectly. They could have freaked out when Japan increased from 1-0 to 2-0, which was the final score. It could be that they triggered something even in the minds of IOC officials. Despite the uncertain future of the sport and thus also of its players, they may have been satisfied: Gold for Japan in national sport. They love stories like that.

At the press conference of the Canadians, Jenna Caira was asked what the most difficult moment of the bronze match was for them. And she replied: "I'll say it honestly, even if you won't like it: That was the moment when I realized that I had to say goodbye to my team."