Chinese sports have been in full swing recently, and the women's championship in the Asian Cup has excited fans during the Chinese New Year. In the baseball and softball world, the female players representing China have been infinitely close to the top spot in the world. Different projects, the same sonorous roses, today I invite you to glimpse the little-known story of the 1996 Chinese women's base winning the silver medal.
Image source: WBSC official website
In 1979, the Chinese women's softball team was officially established, with Li Minkuan as the head coach. Li Minkuan is a Taiwanese compatriot who traveled to Japan as a teenager and has been exposed to baseball and softball since he was a child. In 1953, he returned to China to study at Tianjin No. 4 Middle School, and won the National High School Softball Championship with the varsity team. After being admitted to the Beijing Iron and Steel Institute, he won the National Games championship and worked in the Beijing Mining Research Institute after graduation until 1976, when he obeyed the organization and arranged to engage in sports-related work. In the 18 years from 1979 to 1997, li Minkuan, in addition to being invited to coach in Italy for a year, led the team to participate in almost all major international competitions, and achieved impressive results. In 1999, Li Minkuan was inducted into the International Softball Federation Hall of Fame, and the following year the president of the International Softball Federation personally went to Beijing to present the ring and shield to the elderly.
In October 1990, Li Minkuan and Chinese female basemen were photographed in the Asian Games Village in Beijing
The women's base has faced very difficult conditions since the beginning of the construction of the team. At that time, there was a shortage of equipment, the ball was broken and had to be sewn to continue to be used, and the bat was discounted and could only be repaired with wire. In addition, the conditions of the venue are also very bad, and the players must take on the task of repairing the stadium in addition to training. Even so, the female base girls are still not afraid of hardships, immersed in hard practice, and finally made a splash. In the first China-Japan-U.S. Women's Softball Championship, just two years after the establishment of the team, the Chinese women's softball team won the second place, ranking among the world's top hits.
In 1985, the Chinese women's baseball defeated the so-called invincible American team for the first time in the first South Pacific Classic in Melbourne, which also opened the protracted competition. In the same year, the women's softball team won the championship in the second China-Japan-U.S. Women's Softball Championship 6-0. A year later, the 6th World Women's Softball Championship was the first official international tournament in which Chinese women's softball participated. Despite the fatigue of crossing the ocean and the unsatisfactory attacks of the water and soil, the female base girls still forged ahead and won the runner-up.
In the 1990s, the dominance of Chinese women's bases gradually emerged. The three consecutive titles at the Asian Games show that their ultimate goal is to be the top of the world. The women softball players finished third and second at the 1990 and 1994 World Championships, and all the opponents have surrendered, leaving only the United States in the end. The best showdown stage awaits both sides, the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
The Chinese women's base went to Atlanta
Women's softball entered the Olympic Games for the first time in 1996, which also means that the champion will win the first women's softball Olympic gold medal in history, which is of great significance. In the single round robin group stage, the Chinese women's softball Hao ranked second with a 5-2 record, and entered the double-elimination round with the United States, Australia and Japan. Although they lost 1-0 to the United States in the first match of the winners' group, the Chinese women's base broke the world's third-place Australian team 4-2 in the losers' group final and reached the final. On the other side, the United States team also showed dominance, losing only one game in the group stage with 6 wins and 1 loss. The only defeat was also legendary, with U.S. starting pitcher Lisa Fernandez nearly throwing the perfect match. Her flawless but lacking scoring pitch and continued into extended rounds, eventually hit a goodbye home run by Australia's Jo Brown in the bottom half of the ten innings. Fernandez's teammate Dani Tyler had originally hit a home run in the fifth inning, but she was so excited that she didn't run through home run, and her score was invalidated while in a sense buried the only perfect game in Olympic history.
Despite all the twists and turns in the process, the final was against a fateful opponent - the Chinese women's base and the American women's base. This is already the third meeting between the Chinese and American women in this Olympic Games, which shows the gold content of the duel, and former Olympic Committee President Samaranch also came to watch a softball game for the first time in his life. In this legendary moment of strong dialogue, a famous controversial penalty changed the course of the game.
In the first half of the third inning, China's Zhang Chunfang was ruled out of home run in a double base, while U.S. Team's Dot Richardson hit a high-flying ball near the right field marker against Chinese pitcher Liu Yaju in the bottom half of the third inning, and right fielder Wei Yan signaled the ball out of bounds, but the referee awarded it as a two-run home run. Li Minkuan and the Chinese team members protested for several minutes on the field, but without success. The U.S. team, which scored another point in the inning, maintained its advantage until the end, and the Chinese team only ran back one point in the sixth inning with an opponent's violent throw, and the final score difference was exactly two points from the controversial home run. The Chinese women's base eventually won the Olympic silver medal, thus creating the best result in history.
The Chinese women's base was awarded a silver medal
Fast forward a quarter of a century, and most of the female softball players of that year have been contributing to China's softball cause. The results of that year may not be the most perfect, but the hard work and struggle of the female base girls have long been remembered by the world forever. Kaige immediately cleared the song, not when Zhaojun came out. Although the attention of some women's projects is relatively low, the women can also bring us blood and passion. In 1996, the sky of Atlanta must have fluttered a touch of red that belonged to the Chinese women's base.
Who says Chinese can't play baseball and softball! The figures of these predecessors deserve our respect!
Have you ever heard of any other baseball and softball girls? Come and share it with you in the comments section!