Softball at the 2004 Summer Olympics

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Softball was a women's sporting event at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Games were played at the softball stadium in the Helliniko Olympic Complex from August 14 to 23. The United States won the gold while Australia took silver and Japan received bronze.

Softball was one of the three sports at the 2004 Athens Olympics that was for women only along with Synchronized Swimming and Rhythmic Gymnastics. Eight teams competed for the gold medal in only the third appearance of softball at the Summer Olympics. The softball competition featured 120 athletes.

Japanese pitcher Yukiko Ueno threw a perfect game—the first at an Olympics’ softball competition—in a preliminary round match against China.[1] The United States dominated the overall competition, winning all seven of its preliminary matches and defeating Australia twice in the medal round.

Medalists

Gold Silver Bronze
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Leah Amico
Laura Berg
Crystl Bustos
Lisa Fernandez
Jennie Finch
Tairia Flowers
Amanda Freed
Lori Harrigan
Lovieanne Jung
Kelly Kretschman
Jessica Mendoza
Stacey Nuveman
Cat Osterman
Jenny Topping
Natasha Watley

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Sandra Allen
Marissa Carpadios
Fiona Crawford
Amanda Doman
Peta Edebone
Tanya Harding
Natalie Hodgskin
Simmone Morrow
Tracey Mosley
Stacey Porter
Melanie Roche
Natalie Titcume
Natalie Ward
Brooke Wilkins
Kerry Wyborn

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Emi Inui
Kazue Ito
Yumi Iwabuchi
Masumi Mishina
Emi Naito
Haruka Saito
Hiroko Sakai
Naoko Sakamoto
Rie Sato
Yuki Sato
Juri Takayama
Yukiko Ueno
Reika Utsugi
Eri Yamada
Noriko Yamaji

In one of the most dominating runs in softball history, the United States team led by head coach Mike Candrea won the gold medal by defeating Australia 5-1 in the championship game on August 23. It was the first time in 9 games that an opponent scored a run against Team USA. Crystl Bustos hit two home runs to provide all the run-support that pitcher Lisa Fernandez required. Fernandez pitched all six innings, picking up her second win against Australia in as many days. She also won the semi-final game.

Throughout the tournament Team USA outscored its opponents 51-1. Team USA won the Olympic gold medal in softball for the third straight time.

Australia's silver medal marks its best result in Olympic softball history. Japan earned the bronze medal after defeating China in the semi-final, and losing to Australia in the Bronze medal game.

Participants

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Results

File:Athens Softball Stadium Abandoned 2018.jpg
Olympic Softball Stadium at the Helliniko Olympic Complex - shown abandoned in November 2018.

Starting August 14, there were four preliminary games each day until August 20 for a total of 28 games. Two semi-final games were played August 22, with the game for third place following later that day. The final game for the gold medal was played on August 23 at 4pm local time.

Standings

Team Pld W L RF RA Pct
Template:FlagIOC 7 7 0 41 0 1.000
Template:FlagIOC 7 6 1 22 14 0.857
Template:FlagIOC 7 4 3 17 8 0.571
Template:FlagIOC 7 3 4 15 20 0.429
Template:FlagIOC 7 3 4 6 14 0.429
Template:FlagIOC 7 2 5 3 13 0.286
Template:FlagIOC 7 2 5 6 24 0.286
Template:FlagIOC 7 1 6 8 24 0.143

Preliminary round

August 14

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