Riccardo Fraccari has said the WBSC is closer to the Olympic Movement more than ever, on Olympic Day ©WBSC

The President of the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Riccardo Fraccari has said the governing body's sports are closer to the Olympic Movement than ever before in his Olympic Day address.

His message mentions the reintroduction of baseball and softball to the Olympic programme at Tokyo 2020, which are to start a month from today on July 23, ending on August 8.

Baseball and softball will then again be dropped for the Paris 2024 Games.

Fraccari mentioned the Olympic Virtual Series Baseball Event Finals in his letter, which is being streamed worldwide today, calling it a "wonderful occasion" to raise the sports' profile to younger generations.

"As the Olympic family and millions of athletes and fans around the world celebrate Olympic Day, we at the WBSC are increasingly proud of the role that we have forged for baseball and softball at the heart of the Olympic Movement," said Fraccari.

"Tokyo 2020 will be a historic moment in the WBSC's short but quick-evolving history.

"We established the WBSC in 2013 as a unified, Olympic-standard International Federation.

"Since then, our movement has grown at a pace that few could have imagined."

Fraccari noted the WBSC moving its global headquarters to Pully in Switzerland last year and implementing Baseball5 as part of the Youth Olympics programme for Dakar 2026.

He also spoke of teams' preparations ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and the WBSC Final Olympic Baseball Qualifier, which is taking place in Mexico.