| Softball at the Games of the XXVI Olympiad | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Venue | Golden Park | |||||||||
| Dates | July 21–30 | |||||||||
| Teams | 8 | |||||||||
| Medalists | ||||||||||
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Women's softball made its first appearance as an official medal sport at the 1996 Summer Olympics. The competition was held at historic Golden Park in Columbus, Georgia, United States. Final results for the Softball competition at the 1996 Summer Olympics:
Medalists
| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| Women's tournament |  United States (USA)Laura Berg Gillian Boxx Sheila Cornell Lisa Fernandez Michele Granger Lori Harrigan Dionna Harris Kim Maher Leah O'Brien Dot Richardson Julie Smith Michele Smith Shelly Stokes Danielle Tyler Christa Lee Williams |  China (CHN)An Zhongxin Chen Hong He Liping Lei Li Liu Xuqing Liu Yaju Ma Ying Ou Jingbai Tao Hua Wang Lihong Wang Ying Wei Qiang Xu Jian Yan Fang Zhang Chunfang |  Australia (AUS)Joanne Brown Kim Cooper Carolyn Crudgington Kerry Dienelt Peta Edebone Tanya Harding Jennifer Holliday Joyce Lester Sally McDermid Francine McRae Haylea Petrie Nicole Richardson Melanie Roche Natalie Ward Brooke Wilkins |
Participants
Competition format
Eight teams competed in the Olympic softball tournament, and the competition consisted of two rounds. The preliminary round followed a round robin format, where each of the teams played all the other teams once. Following this, the top four teams advanced to a Page playoff system round consisting of two semifinal games, and finally the bronze and gold medal games.
Group stage
| Qualified for the semifinals | |
| Eliminated |
The top four teams advanced to the semifinal round.
| Team | W | L | RS | RA | WIN% | GB | Tiebreaker |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 United States | 6 | 1 | 37 | 7 | .857 | - | - |
 China | 5 | 2 | 29 | 9 | .714 | 1 | 3 RA vs. AUS/JPN |
.svg.png){kind=small} Australia | 5 | 2 | 22 | 11 | .714 | 1 | 6 RA vs. CHN/JPN |
 Japan | 5 | 2 | 24 | 18 | .714 | 1 | 10 RA vs. CHN/AUS |
.svg.png){kind=small} Canada | 3 | 4 | 15 | 17 | .429 | 3 | - |
 Chinese Taipei | 2 | 5 | 19 | 19 | .286 | 4 | - |
 Netherlands | 1 | 6 | 4 | 32 | .143 | 5 | 1–0 vs. PUR |
 Puerto Rico | 1 | 6 | 5 | 44 | .143 | 5 | 0–1 vs. NED |
- July 21
- July 22
- July 23
- July 24
- July 25
- July 26
- July 27
Medal round
The loser of 1&2 seed game played the winner of the 3&4 seed game in the bronze medal match. The loser of the bronze medal match won the bronze medal while the winner went on to play the winner of the 1&2 seed game for the gold medal in the gold medal match.
| Semifinals | Bronze medal game | Gold medal game | |||||||||||
| 1 | United States | 10 | |||||||||||
| 2 | China | 3 | 1 | United States | 3 | ||||||||
| 2 | China | 4 | 2 | China | 1 | ||||||||
| 3 | Australia | 2 | |||||||||||
| 3 | Australia | 3 | |||||||||||
| 4 | Japan | 0 | |||||||||||
Semi finals
Bronze medal match
Winner advanced to gold medal match. Loser won bronze medal.
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| China | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 2 | |||||||||||||
| Australia | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |||||||||||||
| WP: Wang L (4-2) LP: Roche (2-2) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Gold medal match
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| China | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | |||||||||||||
| United States | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 0 | |||||||||||||
| WP: Michele Granger (2-0) LP: Liu Y(0-1) Sv: Fernandez (1) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Final team standings
| Rank | Team | Games | Wins | Losses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
){kind=icon} | United States (USA) | 9 | 8 | 1 |
){kind=icon} | China (CHN) | 10 | 6 | 4 |
){kind=icon} | Australia (AUS) | 9 | 6 | 3 |
| 4 | .svg.png){kind=small} Japan (JPN) | 8 | 5 | 3 |
| 5 |  Canada (CAN) | 7 | 3 | 4 |
| 6 |  Chinese Taipei (TPE) | 7 | 2 | 5 |
| 7 |  Netherlands (NED) | 7 | 1 | 6 |
| 8 |  Puerto Rico (PUR) | 7 | 1 | 6 |