FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 13, 2010

ISF PRESIDENT REACTS TO SOFTBALL REFERENCES IN MEDIA COVERAGE OF SUPREME COURT JUDGE NOMINEE
Porter Emphasizes Sport’s Universality

PLANT CITY, FLORIDA (USA) -- In their ongoing coverage of U.S. Supreme Court Judge nominee Elena Kagan, the media is painting the sport of softball with one off-color brush, says Don Porter, president of the International Softball Federation, the sport’s world governing body. Speaking from his office at the world headquarters here in the west central part of the state, Mr. Porter pointed out that his is a “sport for all,” regardless of age, sex, or ability level.

“The bottom line here is that softball is for boys, girls, men, and women,” the ISF president said. “We have people in 128 countries around the world playing softball and are working to continue developing the sport so anyone can play, regardless of their sexual orientation or their social or economic status. Sport is supposed to bring people together and eliminate barriers or labels and even provide peace among divided nations.”

With regards to the latter Mr. Porter pointed to the ISF’s work with HRH Prince Feisal of Jordan over the last few years, incorporating softball into the successful Generations For Peace project.

“This past December we had Iran playing in the Asian Junior Women’s Softball Championship in Malaysia. Our rules have been written to allow players to, for religious reasons, wear specific head covering and apparel in competition. Our sport is one of many on the programme of the Gay Games, but it’s also in at least a dozen other multi-sport games, such as the Pan American Games, the Asian Games, the Maccabiah Games, the World Masters Games.”

The ISF president added, “The media has chosen to try to put a label on athletes who play this sport. I’ve heard more about softball that way in one week than I did about our sport, period, in one year during our BackSoftball campaign that sought to get women’s fast pitch reinstated to the Olympic Games programme for 2016. While it’s good to hear our sport mentioned in the major media during the past few days, it has been more in a negative sense than positive because of its tie to the Supreme Court nominee and the pros and cons of her athletic ability rather than her legal attributes."

 

About the ISF
The ISF is the world governing body of the sport as recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and SportAccord (formerly the General Association of International Sports Federations). Softball (women's fast pitch) made its Olympic debut at the 1996 Games in Atlanta. There are 128 affiliated countries in the ISF and millions of participants in the sport worldwide.

MEDIA: For more information, please contact ISF Director of Communications Bruce Wawrzyniak at brucew@ISFsoftball.org or (813) 864-0100, ext. 229.