The Paris Summer Olympics get underway this week, but some athletes in New York and around the world are already looking forward to 2028.
After more than a century, the International Olympic Committee is adding lacrosse back to the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. And when that happens, the Haudenosaunee Nationals Lacrosse team wants to be there, playing under their own flag.
The Haudenosaunee Nationals have the support of both U.S. and Canadian leaders to compete under their own flag in four years. President Joe Biden voiced his support for the Haudenosaunee team's request last year.
"Their ancestors invented the game," Biden said. "They perfected it for millennia. Their circumstances are unique. They should be granted an exception to field their own team at the Olympics."
Leo Nolan, executive director of the Haudenosaunee Nationals Lacrosse team, hopes the team will make it to L.A., not just because of the Haudenosaunee's ties to the origins of the game but also because the team already competes under its own flag in other lacrosse competitions worldwide, placing third in the 2023 World Lacrosse Championship.
"The Olympics showcase the best athletes in a sport, I mean, that's what the Olympics are about," Nolan said. "And being third in the world, both in our men and U20 boys and our women are eighth in the world, you would expect that you would want — because we have some of the best athletes best lacrosse players in the world. And you would want to make sure that they were included in some way, shape, or form."
The International Olympic Committee or IOC said only countries with a National Olympic Committee are eligible to participate, saying it’s up to the U.S. and Canadian Olympic Committees to allow for Haudenosaunee players to compete on their respective teams. In short, Olympians have to represent a nation.
Matthew Andrews, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who studies sports and American history, said the definition of what constitutes a nation is a little murky.
"Puerto Rico is not a nation at the U.N., but they compete as a nation, it makes you wonder why the Haudenosaunee can't compete as a nation," Andrews said. "Palestine competes at the Olympics, though they're just an observer state at the United Nations. Hong Kong competes at the Olympics as an independent nation. American Samoa competes at the Olympics as a independent nation, but they're not a U.N.-recognized nations. It all just depends on what the IOC wants to do and who they want to give nation status to."
Andrews said there is a bit of a slippery slope in how the IOC gives out nation status. He notes Native Hawaiians petitioned to compete in the Olympic surfing contest not as Americans but as Hawaiians.
"If they let the Haudenosaunee compete in lacrosse, the Hawaiians are going to raise their hand and say, 'Well, why don't we get to compete in surfing? We're some of the best surfers in the world. We invented the sport. Hawaii has been colonized by the United States. What's the difference?'" Andrews said. "That's where it gets tricky. Where do you draw the line?"
Andrews said he personally doesn't see an upside of telling the Haudenosaunee they can't compete, saying it’s an obvious feel-good story for the games especially as it can help counteract bad press that comes out of the Olympics.
The Haudenosaunee Nationals often serve as ambassadors of lacrosse in international competitions and Nolan said the team will continue to explore pathways for inclusion in the sport’s first Olympic contest since 1908.
"I think it would be great for the originators of the game to be there and call out, you know these important parts of the game that are important to all of us, not just Indian people, not just Haudenosaunee, but all of us," Nolan said. "With 90 countries now playing, it's a growing, growing sport, and people are really enjoying the competition and the level of what it brings to the sports world."
