After a summer of doping scandals, the women get a chance to redeem sport's public image at the Women's World Softball Championship. Sixteen countries will compete for the title of World's Best at the Fengtai Softball Stadium in Beijing during the August 27 - September 5 competition. China, which placed fifth at the recent World Cup, will draw on home field advantage when it meets the current champs, and heavy favorites, the United States, on September 1. "We'd like to win but it's going to be tough," says China national team coach Monti Van Brunt, himself an American. "In the recent World Cup, America blew everyone out. Realistically we're looking at coming second."

China will field a relatively young team, retaining only four players from its 2004 Olympic side. Van Brunt singles out outfielder Zhang Ai, from Shanghai, as the loose cannon among the new crop. "She's one of the best offensive players around," says Van Brunt.    

Team China will have everything to play for since the four finalists will move on to compete in the 2008 Games. Despite the odds, local fans have plenty of reasons for optimism. China won the silver medal in softball's 1996 Olympic debut. China's women finished fourth at the 2004 Olympics and then came in fourth again at the Women's World Championship in 2002.

The Fengtai championship takes on do-or-die significance for softball fans since the sport was voted out of the 2012 Games by IOC in July 2005. But organizers are confident it'll be reinstated at the next vote in 2009, in time for the 2016 Olympics. "Having a successful games and Olympics in Beijing in 2008 will help the sport's global image," says Bruce Wawrzyniak, spokesman for the International Softball Federation.

China is doing its share of PR legwork to get the game noticed locally. A corporate league in Beijing sees twelve teams competing every weekend while a National Softball Day has been established. "If China comes up from the fourth-place ranking it secured in the last Olympics it will mean more funding for softball," says Van Brunt.   

China is not the first unlikely locality to take to softball.  "We're trying to grow it so it's big not just in North America," explains Wawrzyniak. Among the participants are Botswana, Colombia, Greece and Holland. China's neighbor North Korea will also send a team. Few sides are as feared as the USA however, coming to Beijing after a 5-2 thrashing of Japan at the recent Softball World Cup, avenging a surprise loss in 2005. Others see Australia as the dark horse of the games, following on the heels of its surprise victory over the home favorites in the Canada Cup earlier this year.   

Unusual in sports, the women's world softball championship gets more notice than the men's competition. Still, Wawrzyniak describes getting media coverage as "an ongoing battle." But with plenty of bad news wracking other sports, the time could be right for the women to assert themselves. "We have never had a positive doping case in women's international softball since testing began in 1982. Shouldn't the softball athlete become an ideal role model children should aspire to be like?"

The eyes of the world will be on Fengtai for other reasons too when the games commence. The softball championship will mark the debut of the brand new 9,700-seat Fengtai Softball Stadium, the very first of Beijing's Olympic venues to be completed and tested before the 2008 Games.