aYukiko Ueno stands on a small hill in the stadium with ball in hand. And when he has the ball, you still have to watch. On good days, even at 39, she throws him faster than any other woman in Japan, perhaps faster than anyone else in the world. It was once measured at a speed of 128 kilometers per hour. Now she jumps from one foot to the other. She’s about to throw. And try to do what they did 13 years ago.
It’s a Tuesday evening in Yokohama, a city south of Tokyo. Cricket outside the stadium, inside softball players from Japan and the United States scream in the trees. The Japanese are leading 1-0 by a few minutes in the final of the Olympic tournament. In the press box, the otherwise always quiet TV commentator suddenly speaks a little louder into his microphone. You can feel what you can rarely feel in the halls and stadiums at the moment: the excitement.
In the early days of the Olympic Games, the people of Japan experienced some extraordinary sporting moments. But have you ever been as excited as this time? There are more local journalists in the press box than anywhere else. You might have guessed that tonight you will be able to watch a game for the ages. And it really is in the literal sense. Because the future of the game you are watching may lie in the environment you live in. But not in the Olympics.
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 a ball in parks and meadows. A general concern for the next generation in Japan, but it does not apply to baseball or softball, the most popular sport in the country. A professor from the United States reportedly cheered. 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 it around the world. Softball is the name of the women’s version. Key Difference: The ball is slightly larger and is thrown from the bottom rather than the top. And yet Yukiko Ueno throws him at a speed of 128 kilometers per hour.
Needless to say in Japan. A Fukuoka pitcher throws 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 knows who Yukiko Ueno is. On the biggest platform of the game – baseball in softball there is no extraordinary league like the North American MLB – you didn’t see them until after. Even before the Summer Games, International Olympic Committee (IOC) officials decided to remove softball again from the program, although it was only included in Atlanta in 1996. He had seen three tournaments – and three times the same result: gold for the United States. The Americans couldn’t keep winning because they never lost.
It happened in Beijing, but by then it was too late. Kat Osterman played for the favorite at the time. What Yukiko Ueno is to Japan, he is to the United States. Actually, she had already stopped. Now she is 38 years old. For your country and your sport. And above all to avenge them. Kelsey Hershman sobbed in the press room next to the stadium on Tuesday afternoon when the big game of the rematch has not yet started. He won the bronze medal with Canada against Mexico. Now she says in a low voice why softball is so special to her and so many other women. “I hope we were able to show this to the world, and especially to the IOC,” she says. Then she wipes her tears on her mask.
His trainer Mark Smith is sitting in the chair next to him. He will stop after 13 years. He speaks not with compromise, but with accusations and counter-accusations. After returning to Japan, softball has already been dropped from the Paris 2024 program. And Smith believes: Without the coronavirus, things would have been different.
There may have been 30,000 people in Yokohama’s stadium on Tuesday evening. It could be that he would have amused every throw from Yukiko Ueno, who almost never stopped and played almost perfectly. When Japan went from 1-0 to 2-0, which was the final score, they could panic. He may have stirred something in the minds of IOC officials as well. Despite the uncertain future of the game and thus its players, they can be satisfied: gold for Japan in the national sport. He loves such stories.
At the Canadians press conference, Jenna Kyra was asked what was the toughest moment for her in the bronze match. And she replied: “I’ll say it honestly, even if you don’t like it: that was the moment I realized I had to say goodbye to my team.”
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