Lacrosse at the 1948 Summer Olympics

Lacrosse has been a demonstration sport at the Olympics three times – in 1928, 1932, and 1948, and it was contested as an Olympic sport in 1904 and 1908. The 1948 demonstration was a single game matching an American team from Renssellaer Polytechnic University of Troy, New York, and an All-England lacrosse team, which was contested at the Empire Stadium in Wembley.

Lacrosse started in Canada as an indigenous sport played by the First Nations’ people, and its original name was baggataway. As of 2014 lacrosse has become quite popular, especially in the United States and Canada, and is represented by the Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL). The FIL was formed in 2008 by merging the International Lacrosse Federation and the International Federation of Women’s Lacrosse Associations (IFWLA). The FIL is the only international sport organization to recognize a First Nations/Native American tribe at the national level – the Iroquois Nationals, who represent the Iroquois Confederacy that spans New York, Ontario, Québec and Pennsylvania. The FIL became a member of SportAccord in 2012.