The Canada Cup is an annual international women's softball tournament held at the Softball City Complex in South Surrey, British Columbia. The tournament has expanded to include 2 U-17 and 2 U-19 divisions, and now takes place across 3 parks in Surrey and Delta. The international division plays exclusively at Softball City, whilst the minor divisions play games at Cloverdale Athletic Park and North Delta Community Park.
Format Following an announcement on June 13, 1991, by the International Softball Federation that women's fastpitch was being made a full-medal sport at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, the Canada Cup was created to provide the Canadian national softball team with a world calibre team competition in order to help prepare for Olympic qualifying.
Although a number of US and Japanese club teams have competed in the Canada Cup, the showcase event has evolved primarily into a national team competition between the following countries:
Israel
This tournament enjoys strong local support with hundreds of community volunteers. Each team is assigned a bat girl from one of the local teams plus a family support liaison from the community. Another unusual part of this tournament is the concurrent co-ed Slow-Pitch Friendship Division tournament for developmentally disabled adults which is run at the same site as the premier International Women's Fastpitch tournament. Viewers can watch both at the same time.
2026 Tournament The 2026 Canada Cup featured the following teams
Canada Canada Elite China Chinese Taipei Chinese Taipei Development Venezuela Czechia Brazil Israel New Zealand - White Sox Peru Singapore American Samoa Saskatchewan 222's T.C Colorado
Canada went undefeated in the round robin, earning the top spot in the playoffs. They defeated Chinese Taipei 8-1, and China 14–1 to advance straight to the final. T.C Colorado, who had made the final each of the last four years, struggled, losing 9–1 to China in the winners bracket. They defeated Team Canada Elite 7–0 before playing Chinese Taipei, who beat them 12–11 in extra innings. Chinese Taipei would move on to face China in the semi-final, crashing out 8-1.
Canada would play China in the championship game. China scored the first runs, before Canada tied it at 2 all in the 4th. The Chinese would tack on one more, leading into the top of the 7th inning. Facing a possible shock defeat to the team they had beaten twice 14-1 and 16-4 earlier in the tournament, the Canadians rallied, scoring a 3 run homerun to take the lead 5-3, sealing the win with another 2 runs to be crowned champions at their home tournament for only the 3rd time.
Tournament History YearChampionsRunners-upAttendanceRedding Rebels 43,968 1994 Redding Rebels 56,829 1995California Commotion 70,108 1996 79,136 1998 95,869 1999 (Gold) 100,419 2000 109,814 2001 (Red) 110,346 2002 (World) (Elite) 122,504 2003 (Elite) 113,916 2004 91,201 2005 (Elite) 105,856 2006 112,676 2007 119,301 2008 102,647 2009 N/A 2010 Cancelled 2011 N/A 2012 N/A 2013 N/A 2014 N/A 2022 T.C. Colorado N/A2023T.C ColoradoN/A2022T.C ColoradoN/A2025T.C ColoradoN/A2026N/A
Controversies Israel's continued inclusion in the tournament is controversial, and protests by Pro-Palestinian activists have been hold outside of Softball City during their games over the last 3 years.
References
External links Official site