World Lacrosse

Lacrosse was twice on the Olympic Programme as a full medal sport, at St. Louis 1904 and London 1908. The sport has also been contested as a demonstration at the Olympics at Amsterdam 1928, Los Angeles 1932, and London 1948. All these Olympic appearances (official or demonstrations) only included a men’s event.

The inaugural edition of the World Lacrosse Men’s Championship was staged in 1967, in Toronto, Canada. Lacking international competitions for women lacrosse players, the International Federation of Women’s Lacrosse Associations (IFWLA) was founded in 1972, followed by the establishment of the International Lacrosse Federation (ILF) in 1974 to govern the men’s version of the sport. A decade after its foundation, the IFWLA finally held its first World Lacrosse Women’s Championship (then known as the Women’s Lacrosse World Cup) in 1982, in Nottingham, Great Britain.

The Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) was formed in August 2008 by merging the IFWLA with the ILF. In May 2019, the FIL launched a rebrand and changed its name to World Lacrosse.

In August 2022, the Los Angeles 2028 Organizing Committee shortlisted nine proposed sports for consideration as optional events for those Olympics, with one of those sports being lacrosse. After many years of efforts, at the 141st International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session in Mumbai, India, the IOC approved lacrosse as an optional sport for the 2028 Olympics, along with four other sports.

All the 20th century Olympic appearances of lacrosse were contested in the sport’s original format, field lacrosse. Los Angeles 2028 will bring sixes lacrosse to the Olympic stage, an incredibly fast-paced, compact version of lacrosse created in 2018. The inaugural World Lacrosse Sixes Championships (men and women) will take place in 2027, a year before the Olympic début. Besides field and sixes, World Lacrosse also governs the discipline of box lacrosse, also known as indoor lacrosse.

A member of the Association of the IOC-recognized International Sports Federations (ARISF), World Lacrosse’s headquarters are situated in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States, and its current president is Bob DeMarco (USA). As of January 2026, World Lacrosse has 95 national members.