World Lacrosse Makes Submission for the Victoria 2026 Commonwealth Games Inclusion
During August 2022, Mr Jim Sherr, Chief Executive Officer of World Lacrosse, formally lodged an Expression of Interest on behalf of World Lacrosse, The Asia Pacific Lacrosse Union, Lacrosse Australia, and Lacrosse Victoria, to the Victoria 2026 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee for the Inclusion of World Lacrosse Sixes in the Victoria 2026 edition of the Commonwealth Games, under the Phase 2 intake of Sports.
The submission introduced World Lacrosse Sixes as the discipline of choice for inclusion in the 2026 Commonwealth Games. This discipline was developed World Lacrosse to support and accelerate the continued growth of Lacrosse worldwide. World Lacrosse received International Olympic committee full recognition in 2021.
The Sixes discipline most recently featured sixteen teams ( 8 Mens and 8 Womens ) competing at The World Games in Birmingham Alabama in the USA in July of 2022.
A 2022 survey of the sport found that there were over 180,000 participants across World Lacrosse Commonwealth Nations and 25 Commonwealth Games federation Nations that were also World Lacrosse members. These numbers are currently on a strong growth path.
Commonwealth National Governing Bodies
Australia, Bahamas (in progress), Bermuda, British Virgin Islands (in progress), Canada, England, Ghana, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Malta, New Zealand, Nigeria, Rwanda, Scotland, Sierra Leone, Singapore, South Africa, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, Uganda, Wales.
Why Sixes?
World Lacrosse Sixes was designed to achieve the following objectives; provide greater access to lacrosse by eliminating barriers to entry, appeal to next generation of sport participants and fans with temp, scoring, and less specialisation, create greater competitive balance international by bringing more nationals within reach of the podium and finally to fit within the 21st Century Olympic framework, where the international Olympic Committee and Host Cities are working to reduce the cost and complexity of staging the Olympic games.