Baseball at the 2008 Summer Olympics

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Baseball at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing will be held over an eleven day period starting August 13 and concluding with the medal finals on August 23. All games will be played at Wukesong Baseball Field, a temporary venue constructed at the Beijing Wukesong Culture & Sports Center. Olympic baseball is competed by men only, women compete in the similar sport of softball.

The International Olympic Committee has voted to remove baseball from the program for the 2012 Olympics, so this is the last time that baseball will be contested at the Olympics unless it is reinstated at a future date.

1 Competition Format
2 Qualification
3 Qualification Schedule
4 References

[edit] Competition Format

Eight teams will compete in the Olympic baseball tournament, and the competition consists of two rounds. The preliminary round follows a round robin format, where each of the teams plays all the other teams once. Following this, the top four teams advance to a single elimination round culminating in the bronze and gold medal games.

[edit] Qualification

The eight teams in the Olympic baseball tournament will qualify through a series of tournaments. China, as the host nation, is guaranteed one automatic entry. Three continental tournaments will qualify teams from the Americas (2), Asia (1) and Europe (1). The remaining three teams will qualify at a Final Olympic Qualifying Tournament, which will consist of the following teams: Oceania champion, African champion, 3rd and 4th place teams from Americas, 2nd and 3rd place teams from Asia, and 2nd and 3rd place European teams.

[edit] Qualification Schedule

Date	Event	Location	Qualifier
	Host Nation		CHN
Aug 25 - Sept. 7, 2006	Americas Qualifying Tournament	Havana, CUB	USA CUB
Sept. 7-16, 2007	European Championships	Barcelona, ESP	1st place team
Nov. 26 - Dec. 2, 2007	Asian Baseball Championships	Taiwan, TPE ¹	1st place team
March/April, 2008	Final Olympic Qualifying Tournament (MEXICO, CANADA, AUSTRALIA, SOUTH AFRICA ,4 other teams )	Taiwan, TPE ¹	1st place team 2nd place team 3rd place team

Note 1: Chinese Taipei is the official IOC designation for the state officially referred to as the Republic of China, more commonly known as Taiwan. (See also political status of Taiwan for details.)

[edit] References

Events at the 2008 Summer Olympics (Beijing)

Archery • Athletics • Badminton • Baseball • Basketball • Boxing • Canoeing • Cycling • Diving • Equestrian • Fencing • Football • Gymnastics • Handball • Hockey • Judo • Modern pentathlon • Rowing • Sailing • Shooting • Softball • Swimming • Synchronized swimming • Table tennis • Taekwondo • Tennis • Triathlon • Volleyball • Water polo • Weightlifting • Wrestling

Baseball at the Summer Olympics
1912* • 1920-1932 • 1936* • 1948 • 1952* • 1956* • 1960 • 1964* • 1968-1980 • 1984* • 1988* • 1992 • 1996 • 2000 • 2004 • 2008 * Demonstration sports at these Games See also: List of Olympic medalists in baseball