Olympic Softball Medalists

Softball is off the Olympic program in 2012, but the sport went out with a bang in Beijing when Japan upset the heavily-favored United States team in the gold medal final, 3-1.

How big an upset was this? The Americans hadn’t lost an Olympic softball game since the 2000 Games in Sydney, running off 22 straight wins before the Beijing final and winning 32 of 36 in all.

Here’s a list of Olympic softball medalists, dating to the game’s debut in 1996:

1996: Gold – USA; Silver – China; Bronze – Australia

2000: Gold – USA; Silver – Japan; Bronze – Australia

2004: Gold – USA; Silver – Australia; Bronze – Japan

2008: Gold – Japan; Silver – USA; Bronze – Australia

 Source: About.com