Not a new sport exactly, but baseball and softball return to the Olympic roster in 2020 after being cut from the 2012 and 2016 Games.
Great Britain has little past history of Olympic baseball, but came second in the European Olympic qualifier for Beijing 2008, and now British Baseball believes the country can take the next step.
With Major League baseball players such as Michael Roth of the San Francisco Giants and the Miami Marlins’ Jake Esch and Chris Reed available, the pool of British talent appears to be growing.
At the World Baseball Classic qualifying event this year, Britain finished second to Israel – who featured several former MLB performers – having beaten a strong Brazil.
Should the event at Tokyo 2020 clash with the MLB season, the medals prospects could open up for all, and GB believe they can field as good a Minor League team as anyone.
In softball, the women have consistently been one of the top European teams and in 2015 finished 13th out of 30 teams at the World Championship.
They are currently ranked 14th in the world.
The future looks bright for GB as the under-19 team won European gold in 2016 and the top pitcher for the senior side is Georgina Corrick, who at just 16 has secured a college scholarship at the University of South Florida under the guidance of the USA team coach Ken Eriksen.
He expects big things from the teenager, who at the 2016 Women’s World Championship struck out every batter she faced against the defending champions Japan.