The lacrosse competition at the 2022 World Games took place in July 2022,[1] in Birmingham in United States, at the University of Alabama Birmingham. Originally scheduled to take place in July 2021, the Games were rescheduled for July 2022 as a result of the 2020 Summer Olympics postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[2] The women's tournament was played as an official event and the men's tournament as an invitational event. This was the first time that men's and women's field lacrosse were played in a six-a-side format in a multi-sport competition. This was also an absolute debut of a men's tournament in a World Games programme, as in 2017 women played the traditional lacrosse discipline for the first time in the history of the World Games. The games in 2022 were played in the sixes format, with teams of six players per side, reduced field size, and shorter games as compared to the parent field lacrosse format, which was conducive to daily tournament play. The game was played in eight-minute quarters and emphasized speed and efficiency.
A total of 8 teams for each gender competed in the lacrosse event at the 2022 World Games.
Qualification for the men's tournament of the 2022 World Games was based primarily on final placement at the 2018 World Lacrosse Championship.[3][4] The Iroquois team, who took third at the 2018 championship, were initially disqualified as the Iroquois confederacy does not have a National Olympic Committee; after the ruling was overturned, the Irish team vacated their place in their favour. Lacrosse was invented by Indigenous nations including the Iroquois or Haudenosaunee peoples, and the game has spiritual significance for them.[5]
For the women's tournament, the 2021 World Lacrosse Women's World Championship was supposed to be the basis for qualification. Like their men's counterpart, the Iroquois women's national lacrosse team was eligible to qualify.[3] However, the Women's World Championship was postponed to July 2022.
* Host nation (United States)
Group A
Group B
Group A
Group B
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