official Olympic sport in 1992. Italy's best finish in an Olympics is sixth place, which they did in both 1996 and 2000. The first time an actual baseball tournament was held at an Olympics in , Italy finished with a 1–2 record, with its only victory coming against the Dominican Republic. There was no official placing as Baseball at the 1984 Summer Olympics was a demonstration sport. At the International Olympic Committee (IOC) meeting on July 8, , baseball and softball were voted out of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, becoming the first sports voted out of the Olympics since polo was eliminated from the 1936 Summer Olympics. Because Team Italy finished in the top five in the 2019 European Baseball Championship it moved on to the 2020 Olympics qualifiers, in Italy September 18–22. IBAF Amateur World Series, Baseball World Cup, and WBSC Premier12 Italy's best finish in the Amateur World Series has been fourth place, which they did in . In , the event became known as the International Baseball Federation's (IBAF) World Cup. Italy's best finish in a Baseball World Cup is also fourth place, which they did when they served as the host nation in . Italy also hosted the and games. The 2009 IBAF World Cup was hosted by Europe. It was the first time in history the World Cup was hosted by a whole continent rather than an individual country. 2007 IBAF World Cup On November 9, , Italy handed the U.S.A. team their only loss in Team U.S.A.'s route to win the 2007 Baseball World Cup in Taiwan. It was the U.S.'s first loss to Italy in 21 years and the first time it ever lost to Italy with professional players, as the team consisted of Major League Baseball players and top minor league prospects. Both Italy and Panama ended up with 3–4 records in the 2007 games; however, Panama's 5.85 run ratio versus Italy's 4.73 placed them in fifth place while Italy settled for sixth. 2009 The 2009 Baseball World Cup took place from September 9–27. Seven European countries hosted and participant in the tournament of 22 teams. The event was made up of five groups consisting of four teams each, for a total of 20 teams. Italy (Bollate, Bologna, Codogno, Florence, Godo, Macerata, Parma, Piacenza, Reggio Emilia, Rimini, San Marino, Torino, Trieste, Verona, and Vicenza) and Netherlands (Rotterdam, Haarlem and Amsterdam)