Antonio Castro, son of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, is spurring baseball’s latest attempt to rejoin the Olympics.
“Not only for Tokyo 2020 but for beyond I think we may have a good chance hopefully,” Castro said at the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Congress in Hammamet, Tunisia, according to insidethegames. Castro is the vice president of the International Baseball Federation.
Baseball and softball, which were last in the Olympics in 2008, were beaten by wrestling in a bid to re-enter the Olympic program for 2020 and 2024 at an International Olympic Committee vote in September.
But new IOC president Thomas Bach said leading up to the Sochi Olympics and again at the Winter Games that there could be flexibility over a rule that mandates sports must be on the Olympic program seven years before they are contested at a Summer or Winter Games.
The WBSC is set to request a meeting with Bach, according to the report, hoping to be reconsidered for a spot in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics before the IOC Executive Board meets in Monaco in December, when the 2020 Olympic agenda will be submitted for final approval. Baseball and softball are popular in Japan, boosting their cases more so than if the 2020 Olympics had been awarded to Madrid or Istanbul in last year’s vote.
“We want to go inside the Olympics, but not only for 2020 but for our whole life,” Castro said, according to the report.
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