COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO, USA – World Lacrosse announced today that its senior-level Men’s World Championship, originally scheduled for 2022, is being moved back one year to 2023 in response to other changes in the international sport calendar, to better accommodate athlete availability and to ease financial burden on its member National Governing Bodies.

With the Tokyo Olympic Games being moved to 2021, The World Games – in which women’s and men’s lacrosse both will be featured for the first time -- has been moved to 2022. As a result, the World Lacrosse Board of Directors today approved a recommendation from Management to move the senior-level Men’s World Championship back one year to 2023. The event will take place in Los Angeles, California, USA in the July-September timeframe.

With the change, the revised World Lacrosse major event calendar for the next four years is as follows:

2021 World Lacrosse Men’s U20 World Championship
June 17-26, 2021
Limerick, Ireland

2021 World Lacrosse Women’s World Championship
July 7-17, 2021
Towson, Maryland, USA

The World Games
July 7-17, 2022
Birmingham, Alabama, USA

2023 World Lacrosse Men’s World Championship
Dates TBD
Los Angeles, California, USA

In other action taken today by the World Lacrosse Board of Directors:

• The Board 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, including a permanent change in the upper age limit for the age-group Men’s and Women’s World Championships to U20. Those recommendations will now be shared directly with World Lacrosse member-National Governing Bodies for further review and input, including a webinar later in June addressing the recommendations, before final action is taken.

• The Board approved creation of a COVID-19 Relief Grant Program, through which World Lacrosse member-National Governing Bodies may apply to receive grant funding to support budget relief due to lost revenue or other direct impacts resulting from the COVID-19 global pandemic. The process to apply for a grant and award criteria will be shared with World Lacrosse member-NGBs in the coming days. Consideration will also be given to the creation of a separate grant program for Continental Federations.

• Finally, the Board received an update on planning for the 2020 World Lacrosse General Assembly, which will be held October 18 in a virtual format.