Canada Cup International Softball Championship
This article needs to be updated.(May 2022) |
The Canada Cup is an annual international women's softball tournament held at the Softball City Complex in South Surrey, British Columbia.
Format
[edit]Following an announcement on June 13, 1991, by the International Softball Federation that women's fastpitch was being made a full-medal sport at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, the Canada Cup was created to provide the Canadian national softball team with a world calibre team competition in order to help prepare for Olympic qualifying.
Over the years, the Canada Cup has evolved into one of the most prestigious international softball tournaments. Today, the competition is split among four separate tournaments:
- Canada Cup: Showcase event, featuring the top women's teams globally
- Canada Cup Futures: featuring about 30 of the top U19 teams globally
- Canada Cup Showcase: featuring top U16 teams
- Canada Cup Special O: a mixed Special Olympics Division
Although a number of US and Japanese club teams have competed in the Canada Cup, the showcase event has evolved primarily into a national team competition between the following countries:
This tournament enjoys strong local support with hundreds of community volunteers. Each team is assigned a bat girl from one of the local teams plus a family support liaison from the community. Another unusual part of this tournament is the concurrent co-ed Slow-Pitch Friendship Division tournament for developmentally disabled adults which is run at the same site as the premier International Women's Fastpitch tournament. Viewers can watch both at the same time.
Tournament History
[edit]Year | Champions | Runners-up | Attendance |
1993 | Redding Rebels | 43,968 | |
1994 | Redding Rebels | 56,829 | |
1995 | California Commotion | 70,108 | |
1996 | Canada |
79,136 | |
1998 | Australia |
95,869 | |
1999 | United States (Gold) |
Australia |
100,419 |
2000 | Australia |
China |
109,814 |
2001 | Japan (Red) |
Australia |
110,346 |
2002 | United States (World) |
United States (Elite) |
122,504 |
2003 | United States (Elite) |
Australia |
113,916 |
2004 | Japan |
Australia |
91,201 |
2005 | Australia |
United States (Elite) |
105,856 |
2006 | Australia |
Canada |
112,676 |
2007 | United States |
Japan |
119,301 |
2008 | Japan |
Australia |
102,647 |
2009 | United States |
Canada |
N/A |
2010 | Cancelled | ||
2011 | United States |
Japan |
N/A |
2012 | Japan |
United States |
N/A |
2013 | Japan |
Australia |
N/A |
2014 | Japan |
United States |
N/A |
2022 | United States |
T.C. Colorado | N/A |