Lacrosse's road back to the Olympic Games.

The early Games

World Lacrosse records that lacrosse was an official Olympic sport at the 1904 and 1908 Games, and a demonstration sport in 1928, 1932 and 1948. Medal results from those Games belong to the events section of this site. After 1948, lacrosse did not appear at a multi-sport games again until 2017, by World Lacrosse's account.

The decision to go back

World Lacrosse says its two predecessors, the men's International Lacrosse Federation and the women's International Federation of Women's Lacrosse Associations, each decided in 2005 to pursue a return to the Olympic Games. It says the two bodies then merged into the Federation of International Lacrosse in 2008, about three years after the process began. The World Lacrosse page covers the merger and the later rename.

Step by step

Full Recognition: June or July 2021

A World Lacrosse feature page dates Full Recognition to June 2021, which matches the IOC Executive Board's step on 10 June. World Lacrosse's own press release of 20 July 2021 says the IOC membership voted to grant Full Recognition on 20 July 2021 at the Session in Tokyo. This site uses 20 July 2021, the date of the Session vote, for Full Recognition, and treats June as the Executive Board's recommendation.

World Lacrosse said it submitted more than 500 pages of material for the evaluation. USA Lacrosse pointed out at the time that Full Recognition does not on its own put a sport on the Olympic programme; that is a separate decision.

Why sixes

World Lacrosse's July 2021 release describes the aims behind sixes: lowering the barriers to taking up the game, such as cost, team size and field size; appealing to new participants; improving competitive balance; and fitting the IOC's framework for Games that cost less to stage. Sixes uses a smaller field, six players a side and a 30-second shot clock, under one rule book for women and men; see the sixes page.

The LA28 decision

The IOC's release of 16 October 2023 says the 141st Session in Mumbai included five additional sports for Los Angeles 2028: baseball and softball, cricket (T20), flag football, lacrosse (sixes) and squash. The release says the additional sports were proposed by the LA28 organising committee and apply to the LA28 Games only. Whether lacrosse appears at later Games is therefore a separate question that the release does not answer.

Getting ready for 2028

World Lacrosse's sixes rule book (2026-2028, version 2.0, May 2026) covers the years 2026 to 2028, up to and including the Olympic year. Several of its equipment requirements, and those World Lacrosse announced on 12 May 2026, phase in at its own events from the 2027 Sixes World Championships. Among them, men's sixes players must wear helmets and shoulder pads with NOCSAE certification or a comparable standard in the product's country of origin (Rule 2.4.1M), and women's sixes field players must wear protective eyewear meeting the applicable ASTM or comparable standard (Rule 2.4.1W). The equipment section has the detail.

Some national bodies have shaped their plans around the format. British Lacrosse, which manages Great Britain's men's and women's squads for certain international events, states an aim to be a leading sixes nation.

Who takes part

World Lacrosse says the IOC Executive Board approved the lacrosse qualification system for LA28 on 1 February 2026 (World Lacrosse release, 2 February 2026). Qualification was still in progress on 23 October 2026; the lacrosse at the Olympics page sets out the pathway as published. World Lacrosse's 2019 release on membership tiers says the teams of its Full Members can play in the medal rounds of World Championships. The Onondaga Nation's June 2023 article on the Haudenosaunee Nationals notes that in the mid-1980s the international federation had only four member nations: the United States, Canada, Australia and England. The Haudenosaunee Nationals' own story is on the national bodies page.