Day 1 Historical Preview: Tokyo 2020 Olympic Softball tournament

The sport of softball is returning to the Olympic Games for the first time since 2008. USA (1996, 2000 and 2004) and Japan (2008) are the two nations to have won an Olympic softball gold medal. Australia (1 silver, 3 bronzes) has never won the gold, but the nation has won a medal in each Olympic softball event. Softball Canada has yet to medal, while Mexico is making its Olympic softball debut.

The six-team Tokyo 2020 Olympic softball tournament will open Wednesday, 21 July, with all teams in action.

Here's a look at past head-to-heads and historical data for Day 1:

Game 1 - Australia vs. Japan

• Australia and Japan met each other eight times inOlympic Games, twice in each edition softball was held. Both teams won fourtimes.
• Australia won twice in both 1996 and 2004, Japan wontwice in both 2000 and 2008.
• The Olympic Games in 1996 is the only edition in whichJapan failed to win a medal, as they lost 3-0 in the semi-finals againstAustralia. Australia grabbed bronze after losing the final eliminator to China.
• Australia lost 1-0 on home soil against Japan in thesemi-finals of the Olympic Games in 2000.
• At the Olympic Games in 2004, Australia beat Japan 3-0in the final eliminator, leaving Japan with a bronze medal.
• At 2008 Beijing, Japan beat Australia 4-3 in the 12thinning in the final eliminator, which meant a third Olympic bronze medal forAustralia in softball.
• Japan and Australia also played their opening game ofthe Olympic Games against each other in 2004 and 2008. Australia beat Japan 4-2in 2004 and Japan won 4-3 in 2008.
• Since the last Olympic softball tournament in 2008,Japan and Australia have met four times in world championships. Japan won allfour games.

Game 2 - Italy vs. United States

• Italy and United States will play each other for thethird time in the Olympic Games. United States won both previous games, 6-0 in2000 and 7-0 in 2004 (the opening game of the tournament for both teams).
• Italy participates in softball in the Olympic Gamesfor the third time. They won three of their 14 Olympic games: 1-0 against bothCuba and New Zealand in 2000 and 7-5 versus China in 2004.
• Since softball made its Olympic debut in 1996, UnitedStates have won all seven games against Italy in world championships, WorldCups and Olympic Games.
• The most recent of these seven games was at the worldchampionships in 2014, when USA won 7-0 in the group stage.
• Italy scored only one run in these seven gamescombined, when United States won 6-1 in the group stage of the worldchampionships in 2006.

Game 3 - Mexico vs. Canada

• Mexico are the only team at Tokyo 2020 that will be makingtheir Olympic debut in softball.
• Canada competed in all four previous Olympic softball tournaments.
  Their best result was fourth place in 2008.
• Mexico beat Canada 2-1 in 2019 at the Americas Olympicqualification tournament. Mexico and Canada were the two teams that qualifiedfor the 2020 Olympic Games via that tournament.
• Mexico and Canada met six times in world championshipsand World Cups from 2012 to 2017. Canada won all six games.
• The most recent of those six games was a 12-7 win forCanada in the round robin stage of the 2017 World Cup, a tournament Canada wenton to finish third.
• Excluding softball's debut at the Olympic Games in1996, a team making its Olympic debut has never progressed from the groupstage. The best result by a debut team was fifth by Italy in 2000.