The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Vice President Lambis
Nikolaou threw out a ceremonial first pitch before the game between
Chinese Taipei and Venezuela at women's softball World Championship
on Wednesday.
Nikolaou has been an IOC member since 1986 and was also the Vice
President of the Organizing Committee for the Athens 2004 Olympic
Games.
The World Championship is the first Olympic test event in
Beijing with 16 teams competing in two pools, which will produce
four spots (excluding China, the host) participating the Beijing
2008 Olympics.
The 2008 Olympic softball tournament will be the last for at
least eight years. Softball first featured as a medal sport at the
Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996, but it was removed from the Olympic
events for the 2012 London Olympics.
(Xinhua News Agency August 31, 2006)
