World Lacrosse Moves Men’s World Championships to 2023

World Lacrosse has announced the Men’s World Championships will move back one year to 2023 in response to changes in the international sporting calendar. The competition was originally scheduled to take place from July 14 to 23 in California in 2022. World Lacrosse says the event is now expected to take place between July and September in 2023.

The decision has been made to better accommodate athlete availability and to ease financial burden on its members, World Lacrosse said.

The move comes amid calendar changes caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games to 2021. The World Games, which will feature lacrosse, has been moved to 2022. Moving the Men's World Championships is the latest update to World Lacrosse’s calendar for the next four years. The World Lacrosse Men’s Under-20 World Championship is currently scheduled to take place from June 17 to 26 in Limerick in 2021, before the Women’s World Championships follow from July 7 to 17 at Maryland. Competition at the World Games will also take place from July 7 to 17 in 2022. Dates will be confirmed for the Men’s World Championships in 2023 following the announcement that the event will move.

World Lacrosse added that its Board has endorsed a series of recommendations from the Blue Skies Working Group related to further revisions to the World Championship event calendar and age classification structure for future World Lacrosse events. This will include a permanent change in the upper age limit for the age-group Men’s and Women’s World Championships to U20.

Recommendations are now set to be shared directly with World Lacrosse members for further review and input, which will include holding a webinar in June before final action is taken.

The World Lacrosse Board has also approved a COVID-19 relief grant program which will enable national governing bodies to apply for funding to support budget relief due to lost revenue or other direct impacts resulting from the pandemic. The process to apply for a grant and award criteria will be shared with members in the coming days, World Lacrosse said. Consideration will also be given to the creation of a separate grant program for Continental Federations.