<Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> <Ul> <Li> Medalists </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> Medalists </Li> </Ul> <P> Softball at the Summer Olympics was on the Olympic programme from 1996 to 2008 . Softball was removed from the programme for 2012 and 2016, but was added, along with baseball, for the 2020 Summer Olympics . </P> <P> During the 1940s, Americans and Japanese were making the first overtures to get softball included on the Olympic programme . This effort was led by the American softball association and Jiro Iwano, Vice President of the Japanese Olympic Committee and President of the Japanese Softball Association . </P>

When was softball first played in the olympics