Lacrosse Gaining Steam Towards Olympics
by Brian Logue | @uslacrosse
lazyllama / Shutterstock.com
The 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil officially begin tonight with the Opening Ceremonies, and lacrosse will not be played. Earlier this week, it was announced that baseball, karate, skateboarding, softball, sport climbing and surfing will be added to the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
It’s enough to drive a lacrosse fan crazy.
But there’s a lot to be excited about right now as it relates to international lacrosse and the “Olympic Dream.”
The Federation of International Lacrosse, which last month welcomed Haiti as its 55th member nation, is formally applying to the International Olympic Committee for recognition — a step made possible by the FIL’s acceptance to SportAccord in 2012 and the International World Games Association in 2013.
“We’re very hopeful by the end of the year that we’ll get the call that our great sport of lacrosse is recognized by the IOC,” said FIL President Stan Cockerton to Around the Rings. “Then, once that happens, we’ve already got an Olympic vision committee in place to raise the $ 3 million to $ 4 million that we think it’s going to take to get that last push to be competing in the Olympics, to get lacrosse back in the Olympics, with all the great sports of the world.”
Men’s lacrosse was an Olympic sport in 1904 and 1908 and was a demonstration sport in the 1928, 1932 and 1948 Olympics.
The IWGA membership takes on added emphasis over the next 12 months. US Lacrosse is opening tryouts for the 2017 U.S. women’s national team today, a team that will join Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Japan and Poland in The World Games in Wroclaw, Poland from July 20-30, 2017. That event will take place shortly after the FIL World Cup in England and will mark the first time that lacrosse has been a part of The World Games.
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