Women's softball made its first appearance as an official medal sport at the 1996 Summer Olympics. The competition was held at Golden Park in Columbus, Georgia, United States. Final results for the softball competition at the 1996 Summer Olympics appear below.
Medalists Women's tournamentLaura Berg Gillian BoxxSheila CornellLisa FernandezMichele GrangerLori HarriganDionna HarrisKim MaherLeah O'BrienDot RichardsonJulie SmithMichele SmithShelly StokesDanielle TylerChrista Lee WilliamsAn ZhongxinChen HongHe LipingLei LiLiu XuqingLiu YajuMa YingOu JingbaiTao HuaWang LihongWang YingWei QiangXu JianYan FangZhang ChunfangJoanne BrownKim CooperCarolyn CrudgingtonKerry DieneltPeta EdeboneTanya HardingJennifer HollidayJoyce LesterSally McDermidFrancine McRaeHaylea PetrieNicole RichardsonMelanie RocheNatalie WardBrooke 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 EliminatedThe top four teams advanced to the semifinal round.
TeamWLRSRAWIN%GBTiebreaker61377.857--52299.7141 3 RA vs. AUS/JPN522211.7141 6 RA vs. CHN/JPN522418.7141 10 RA vs. CHN/AUS341517.4293-251919.2864-16432.1435 1–0 vs. PUR16544.1435 0–1 vs. NED
July 21
July 22
July 23
July 24
July 25
July 26
July 27
Medal round The loser of the 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 match Winner advanced to gold medal match. Loser won bronze medal.
Gold medal match
Final team standings Rank Team Games Wins Losses 9 8 1 10 6 4 9 6 34 8 5 35 7 3 46 7 2 57 7 1 68 7 1 6
References Official Olympic Report