Cousin to American football, flag football grows in Brazil – 10/16/2023 – Sport

The announcement of the inclusion of five new sports in the Los Angeles Olympic Games program in 2028 seeks to bring sports that are popular in the United States to the sporting event.

Favorite sport among Americans, American football will be represented at the Olympics through “flag football”.

It will be the first appearance of the sport in the biggest multi-sport event on the planet. At the 1932 Games, also in Los Angeles, American football entered the Olympic program as a demonstration sport, in what was its only participation.

In “flag football”, something like “football with a flag”, players also aim to advance with possession of an oval ball against the opponent’s field, as occurs in American football. However, there is no physical contact, often violent, seen in the most popular modality.

Instead of knocking players down with their bodies to interrupt the progress of a play, in “flag football” players need to remove the cloth flags that are tied to their rivals’ waists to prevent their progress.

The game is played on grass on fields that are 64 meters long by 27.4 meters wide. Unlike American football, there is no shot on goal in “flag football”, with the score resulting only from advancing to the end line of the opponent’s field.

There are some reasons given by experts to justify the absence of American football in the Olympic program. One of the main ones, according to the newspaper “The New York Times”, is the usual one-week rest period between a team’s games, necessary due to the physical exhaustion of the athletes, incompatible with the two-week window of the sporting event. . The risk of serious injuries, especially to the head, is also highlighted as one of the reasons that contribute to keeping American football away from the Games.

In Brazil, “flag football” is organized by the CBFA (Brazilian Confederation of American Football).

At the beginning of the month, the Brazilian confederation announced a partnership with the NFL (professional American football league in the USA) to launch a training program for young flag football athletes in Brazil.

The first event resulting from the partnership was the “NFL Flag National Championships”, a tournament held on Sunday (15), in São Bernardo do Campo, which brought together 12 teams with children up to 12 years old.

Among adults, the men’s and women’s teams were champions in the South American Championship held in Itapecerica da Serra, in São Paulo, in December last year. In the final, the Brazilian women’s team beat Colombia 32-12, and the men’s team beat Argentina 35-33.

At the World Cup, held at the end of 2021, in Israel, the women’s team came in fourth place. The men’s team came in 17th place.

Baseball will make seventh Olympic appearance at the Los Angeles Games

Baseball, which is also among the most popular sports in the United States, has a greater tradition in the Olympic Games.

At the 2028 Games, baseball will make its seventh official appearance, having been played in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2020, without considering the editions as a demonstration sport.

Softball, a version similar to baseball played mainly by women, was also included in the 2028 Games program and will make its sixth appearance at the Olympics. The modality participated in the 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2020 editions.

The biggest differences between the two sports are in the size of the ball, which is larger in softball, and the dimensions of the field, which are larger in baseball.

The Brazilian men’s baseball team will compete in the Pan American Games, in Chile. The debut will be against Venezuela, on Thursday (19). The team qualified for the tournament after their tenth South American title, won last year in Lima, Peru. The last participation was in 2007, in Rio de Janeiro, when he finished the competition in seventh place.

Lacrosse returns to the Olympic program after participation in 1904 and 1908

Also popular in the United States and Canada, especially in colleges and universities, lacrosse is known for the use of sticks with a kind of basket at one end, in which players must carry the ball towards the opponent’s goal.

The sport was part of the official program at the 1904 and 1908 Games, when the Canadian team became two-time champions.

In May 2023, the sport’s international federation approved Brazil’s entry as its 86th member. “We look forward to building a robust lacrosse network in the coming years, joining the thriving international community that already exists for the sport,” declared Manuel Elbio Aquino Sequeira, president of the Brazilian confederation.

In a qualifying tournament held in Colombia in July 2022, Peru, Mexico, Jamaica and Puerto Rico qualified for the 2023 World Cup. The lacrosse World Cup was played in the United States between June and July and was won by the home team, with Canada taking runner-up.

Brazilian women’s cricket emerges in South America

In the case of cricket, the appeal in the United States is not as great, but it is the most popular sport in India, which currently hosts the World Cup. The Asian country has signaled its intention to host the Olympic Games in the future. The sport made a single appearance at the Olympics, in 1900, in the Paris edition.

Entities that organize cricket tournaments celebrated the sport’s return to the Olympics and said they hoped it would not be a one-off appearance. It took two years of intense negotiations for the inclusion of the game, which has 2.5 billion fans worldwide and is considered a religion in the Indian subcontinent.

Brazil is emerging as one of the main forces in cricket in South America among women. The Brazilian women’s team is four-time South American champion, with victories in the 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019 editions. In the men’s team, the best result was runner-up in South America in 1997 and 2015.

Squash makes its Olympic debut in 2028

Squash has never previously appeared in an Olympic Games, although it was a demonstration sport at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in 2018.

The sport is usually played by two opponents on an enclosed rectangular court. The objective is to hit the ball against the wall so that the opponent cannot hit the ball back.

At the Pan American Games, the sport debuted in 1995, in Mar del Plata. Brazil won 11 medals in the continental tournament, two silver and nine bronze.