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gazmanofhull
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Lacrosse & London 2012

Postby gazmanofhull Wed Jul 13, 2011 9:29 am

Done a little whinging about the ELA on another thread, but hopefully they will redeem themselves a little on this topic.

Now obviously Lacrosse is not an Olympic sport and may never get back into the Olympics if you look at all the sports currently outside of the games wanting to get in - squash, T20 Cricket to name but two with Baseball & Softball seeking a return - so we will not see our sport in London 2012.

But do the ELA, or anyone else for that matter, have any plans to put on a tournament in London during the games? It's the perfect opportunity to promote the sport to the biggest audience possible. The World Championships in Manchester were never going to draw in that much attention, but a tournament in London next summer could draw a massive audience to the sport. I have a feeling that as part of the rules of hosting, certain things cannot be done - cannot link an event, sporting or culturally, to the Olympics, and there may be restrictions on hosting a tournament in the Olympic fortnight. But something the week before the games could be a good promotional tool.

What do others think?
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Re: Lacrosse & London 2012

Postby UKLacrosse Wed Jul 13, 2011 12:20 pm

gazmanofhull wrote:Done a little whinging about the ELA on another thread, but hopefully they will redeem themselves a little on this topic.

Now obviously Lacrosse is not an Olympic sport and may never get back into the Olympics if you look at all the sports currently outside of the games wanting to get in - squash, T20 Cricket to name but two with Baseball & Softball seeking a return - so we will not see our sport in London 2012.

But do the ELA, or anyone else for that matter, have any plans to put on a tournament in London during the games? It's the perfect opportunity to promote the sport to the biggest audience possible. The World Championships in Manchester were never going to draw in that much attention, but a tournament in London next summer could draw a massive audience to the sport. I have a feeling that as part of the rules of hosting, certain things cannot be done - cannot link an event, sporting or culturally, to the Olympics, and there may be restrictions on hosting a tournament in the Olympic fortnight. But something the week before the games could be a good promotional tool.

What do others think?


Daily Telegraph ran a small feature recently (6th July). Lacrosse was not even mentioned as in the frame for 2020, despite the FIL being quoted recently as 2020 being the earliest realistic possibility for serious consideration. Cricket has lost out as well. It appears that baseball and softball are the early favourites to take a vacant slot. 8 sports are listed baseball, softball, rollersport, karate, squash, wushu, wakeboarding .... rock climbing. Apparently surfing, netball, dancing and bowling were also cut from the list with cricket.
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Re: Lacrosse & London 2012

Postby jivingjohn Wed Jul 13, 2011 1:24 pm

Return of the London Tournament again?
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Re: Lacrosse & London 2012

Postby Sour37 Wed Jul 13, 2011 7:18 pm

On a somewhat related subject:

Does anyone else think that FIL aiming for the Olympics is a total waste of time.

To be considered everyone (or both men and women) have to play by the same rules.

Who'd give in? Or would there be a compromise somewhere in the middle?
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Re: Lacrosse & London 2012

Postby young_trig Thu Jul 14, 2011 8:34 am

Sour37 wrote:On a somewhat related subject:

Does anyone else think that FIL aiming for the Olympics is a total waste of time.

To be considered everyone (or both men and women) have to play by the same rules.

Who'd give in? Or would there be a compromise somewhere in the middle?


Why do they have to play by the same rules? In gymnatics you don't see a man running round the floor doing balancing things with a ball or twirling a ribbon!
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Re: Lacrosse & London 2012

Postby UKLacrosse Thu Jul 14, 2011 9:56 am

young_trig wrote:
Sour37 wrote:On a somewhat related subject:

Does anyone else think that FIL aiming for the Olympics is a total waste of time.

To be considered everyone (or both men and women) have to play by the same rules.

Who'd give in? Or would there be a compromise somewhere in the middle?


Why do they have to play by the same rules? In gymnatics you don't see a man running round the floor doing balancing things with a ball or twirling a ribbon!


Trig, that's an event within a sport, there are other gymnastic events which are not for both men and women. I believe that IOC rules applies to team sports. Within specific sports e.g. athletics, gymnastics etc there can be individual events which are different. Same goes with the decathlon, pentathlon .... for some time other athletics events were not replicated for both genders. BMX got in under the guise of cycling ... not a 'new' sport but another cycling event.
Last edited by UKLacrosse on Thu Jul 14, 2011 12:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Lacrosse & London 2012

Postby snooplax Thu Jul 14, 2011 9:57 am

young_trig wrote:
Sour37 wrote:On a somewhat related subject:

Does anyone else think that FIL aiming for the Olympics is a total waste of time.

To be considered everyone (or both men and women) have to play by the same rules.

Who'd give in? Or would there be a compromise somewhere in the middle?


Why do they have to play by the same rules? In gymnatics you don't see a man running round the floor doing balancing things with a ball or twirling a ribbon!



You must be upset you wasted all those years training. :wink:
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Re: Lacrosse & London 2012

Postby webby Fri Jul 15, 2011 1:33 pm

young_trig wrote:Why do they have to play by the same rules? In gymnatics you don't see a man running round the floor doing balancing things with a ball or twirling a ribbon!


No one told Frank the Tank! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A4vBYDfNHg
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Re: Lacrosse & London 2012

Postby gazmanofhull Fri Jul 15, 2011 4:14 pm

If lacrosse had serious aspirations to be in the Olympics, it would be in the World Games - http://worldgames2013.com.co/ - most sports seeking inclusion use this as a platform to then join the Olympics.

In my opinion, lacrosse will never be an Olympic sport. It may get recognised by the IOC, but not included. The schedule is too packed as it is. The only sport under threat of exclusion from the Olympics is football (and maybe tennis), as it serves little purpose when it is not rated that highly by international squads. If football is removed, there is a long list of much more deserving sports likely to get in - squash being the most likely. The international body for squash has done so much for the sport to make it spectator and tv friendly, its more widely played than softball & baseball.
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Re: Lacrosse & London 2012

Postby rpowell Fri Jul 15, 2011 6:16 pm

gazmanofhull wrote:If lacrosse had serious aspirations to be in the Olympics, it would be in the World Games - http://worldgames2013.com - most sports seeking inclusion use this as a platform to then join the Olympics.

Yep, that is on the to-do list for FIL, they are well aware of the process and are working on it. From memory, it goes something like:

1. Sport Accord
2. World Games Association
3. Olympic recognition - not playing in them, just being recognised as a sport by them
4. If you are very, very lucky, actually being part of the Olympics.

Even if lacrosse never makes it to the Olympics, WGA is a good place to be :)
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Re: Lacrosse & London 2012

Postby jacob Sun Jul 24, 2011 12:40 pm

What about the Commonwealth Games? Lacrosse was included as an exhibition game in 1978, could something similar happen for 2014?
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Re: Lacrosse & London 2012

Postby Sour37 Sun Jul 24, 2011 1:57 pm

jacob wrote:What about the Commonwealth Games? Lacrosse was included as an exhibition game in 1978, could something similar happen for 2014?


with only england, wales, scotland, canada, australia?
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Re: Lacrosse & London 2012

Postby dom#10 Sun Jul 24, 2011 2:07 pm

Sour37 wrote:
jacob wrote:What about the Commonwealth Games? Lacrosse was included as an exhibition game in 1978, could something similar happen for 2014?


with only england, wales, scotland, canada, australia?

and bermuda
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Re: Lacrosse & London 2012

Postby jacob Sun Jul 24, 2011 2:14 pm

dom#10 wrote:
Sour37 wrote:
with only england, wales, scotland, canada, australia?

and bermuda


As well as The Cayman Islands, Jamaica, South Africa, Uganda, Singapore, India and New Zealand.

Many of these are emerging nations, but I'm not suggesting that Lacrosse could be included in the main games anyway. An exhibition game would be possible and would bring a lot of publicity to the sport.
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Re: Lacrosse & London 2012

Postby Sour37 Sun Jul 24, 2011 3:25 pm

jacob wrote:
dom#10 wrote:
Sour37 wrote:
with only england, wales, scotland, canada, australia?

and bermuda


As well as The Cayman Islands, Jamaica, South Africa, Uganda, Singapore, India and New Zealand.

Many of these are emerging nations, but I'm not suggesting that Lacrosse could be included in the main games anyway. An exhibition game would be possible and would bring a lot of publicity to the sport.


ok i'll give you NZ, bermuda and singapore from that list
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Re: Lacrosse & London 2012

Postby Ash Sun Jul 24, 2011 4:06 pm

Uganda has lax too. There is a charity that runs a lax as part of its charitable efforts out there called:

http://www.fieldsofgrowthintl.org

One of our LDO's city/college is involved with it, think there has a partnership with their city/programme. There is also now a Uganda lacrosse association according to the website ( http://ugandalacrosse.com/ )

Fields of growth looks like a great lax organisation!
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Re: Lacrosse & London 2012

Postby jacob Sun Jul 24, 2011 4:14 pm

I'm not suggesting that Lacrosse could actually be played as a sport in the Commonwealth games. Just that an exhibition game, of for example, England vs Scotland during the games could bring a bit of attention to the sport. As to whether that's feasible or that the organisers would have any interest in making it happen is another matter.
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Re: Lacrosse & London 2012

Postby lax_mad_webborn Thu Jul 28, 2011 2:07 pm

Sour37 wrote:
jacob wrote:What about the Commonwealth Games? Lacrosse was included as an exhibition game in 1978, could something similar happen for 2014?


with only england, wales, scotland, canada, australia?


It may be a good platform to go for the commonwealth as in the Olympics it would be a British team needing a selection of players from Wales, England and Scotland rather than 3 individual teams.
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Re: Lacrosse & London 2012

Postby dblacklock Fri Jul 29, 2011 1:13 pm

It was also a demonstration sport at the 1994 games in Victoria Canada. Not well attended from our Commonwealth partners though.

TH FIL is taking strides to joining organizations it needs prior to applying to the IOC.

We (that being the FIL Chairs of Rules & Officiating for both Men's and Womens) are looking at ways we can easily harmonize the most important rules - namely field dimensions. I think we will get there, but as with anything there will need to be compromises by both sides. Somone pointed out that gymnastics has different rules for men and women, so there is a precedent set.

I really think that this is a initiative that we need to take - more for funding and sponsorship then the prestige of competing for a gold medal - although I would give my eye teeth to referee a game at the Olympics - but given my capacity as Officiating Chair I will have to be content with watching from the press box (which I would happily take)
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Re: Lacrosse & London 2012

Postby Harry Collins Mon Aug 01, 2011 4:47 pm

I'm sure I read somewhere (albeit a while back) that the IOC were putting a hold on accepting new sports to the Olympics at some point, particularly large team sports as they are both:

a) very expensive - in that many more competitors, coaches, physios etc need to be housed, catered for etc etc
and b) rarely seen as being the highest level of play in that sport (eg football)

I'm sure the article said that Rugby 7s and Softball/Baseball were likely to be the last team sports for a while. And that due to the huge financial burden the Olympics places on host nations, they may begin to start cutting other sports that are already competed for (again football).

There's also the things mentioned above such as the differing mens and womens game, and also rules around how many nations have to be playing and in which contintents etc etc that lacrosse would have to comply with. I know the unification of the mens' and womens' governing bodies was one such rule.

In my opinion, there is better (and more realistic) goals for the FIL to be concentrating on than IOC recognition, e.g. officiating provisions, better facilities and coaching etc
I do accept the point that being an Olympic sport would help with funding/sponsorship/publicity but in the immediate future it seems an unlikley and potentially wasteful aim.
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