After its century-long absence as an official sport in the Olympics program, Lacrosse will be making a legendary return in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, alongside similarly underrepresented sports like baseball, softball, cricket, flag football and squash.
“I’m really excited about [lacrosse’s addition to the Olympics], I really want to see Charlotte North and Izzy Scane there and playing and I’m happy to see lacrosse as a sport getting recognition nationwide,” varsity lacrosse player Reese Holden expressed.
Considered the fastest game on two feet, lacrosse has seen similar speed in growth as the fastest developing sport in North America for the last two decades, having unprecedented success nationwide. Although it has been traditionally treated as an East Coast sport for the majority of its lifetime, lacrosse has spread from its roots to South, Midwest, and Western parts of America at an incredible pace. The biggest reason for its success lies in its approachability: athletes aren’t barred from higher levels of play simply based on how physically gifted they are, but rather their technical skill with a lacrosse stick.
“Anyone can play lacrosse,” Varsity Lacrosse player Bryce Pistorio assured, “As long as you can run and hold a stick, you can find success with the sport.”
It also is a much safer alternative to other heavy contact sports because of its emphasis on protective gear, the most prominent case of this being football where debilitating head injuries have become more common. However, its biggest inhibitor to its growth is the expensive cost of the aforementioned safety equipment.
“I think [the biggest thing holding lacrosse back] is the cost of equipment. Sports like soccer and basketball are really easy to pick up, only needing a ball to play, while lacrosse requires a lot of expensive equipment like sticks and gear to play in a league,” Varsity lacrosse player Christian Luke divulged.
Regardless, lacrosse has made its name as a staple sport in North America, being officiated with its second premiere as an Olympic Sport.
With its debut, the Olympics are introducing a new format for the sport to be played, known as Sixes. Sixes is a much faster-paced evolution of lacrosse created in 2018 to both accelerate global growth and competitively balance playing positions. Being a combination of field and box lacrosse, Sixes lowers the number of players from 10 to 6 for each team and replaces specialist positions with only runners and goalies.
“It definitely will be more different than the lacrosse people are used to, I can say from experience that the indoor version has a very fast turn around and there’s a lot of back and forth,” Reese asserted, “… but it likely will make the game a lot more enjoyable to watch because one of its most loved aspects is already how fast the sport is and it will allow for a lot more closer games.”
The lower player count was also done with the hopes of lowering the cost requirement for players to begin playing, teams needing less equipment overall to officially play in leagues or tournaments.
While Lacrosse isn’t yet a mainstream professional sport, its induction into the Olympic program stands to launch Lacrosse onto the global stage. Its return is both a testament to the long-standing legacy of the sport as a whole, as well as recognition of its rise as a major sport.