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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted at 7:13 a.m., Monday, April 6, 2009

Olympics: Baseball to add women's sport to bid

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Baseball will be adding a women's component to its bid to be reinstated for the 2016 Summer Games.

Harvey Schiller, the president of the International Baseball Federation, tells The Associated Press the change will be made in the next few days.

The move comes a few weeks after women's softball rejected baseball's proposal for a joint baseball-softball bid. The two sports are among seven competing for two openings for new sports at the 2016 Olympics. The International Olympic Committee will vote in October on which sports to add.

Schiller says women's baseball is a growing sport. He estimates that between 300,000 and 500,000 women play baseball worldwide. Meanwhile, women's softball has given the IOC an option of adding men's softball.