The Olympic flag football field for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles is taking shape.
On Sunday, Canada’s men and Mexico’s women won bronze-medal games at the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) championships in Düsseldorf, Germany, securing the final two Olympic qualifying spots available from the tournament. Canada’s men beat Mexico, 34-26, and Mexico’s women beat Great Britain, 20-19.
Italy’s men and Canada’s women previously qualified by advancing to Saturday’s gold-medal games. Canada’s women beat USA, 27-20 for the gold medal, while the U.S. men beat Italy, 46-26.
USA had already qualified
The top-two non-USA finishers from the men’s and women’s 16-team fields earned spots in the Olympic field. The U.S. men and women had already secured Olympic spots via automatic bids awarded to the host country.
That meant significant stakes and additional drama for Sunday’s bronze-medal games, with the winner of each securing an Olympic bid and the loser having to wait until 2028 for another shot at qualifying. Both games were thrillers.
Per Olympics.com, Canada’s men forced overtime with a touchdown with 18 seconds remaining in regulation to tie the game at 26-26. The Canadians then scored a touchdown and two-point conversion on the opening drive of overtime and intercepted Mexico on the ensuing possession to secure the walk-off win.
Mexico’s women, ranked No. 1 in the world, had to fend off a Great Britain rally from a 13-point halftime deficit to secure the 20-19 win and the Olympic bid.
With the weekend’s results, half of the six-team fields are now set for both the men’s and women’s Olympic tournaments.
2028 Olympics flag football qualifiers
Men’s
USA (automatic bid, silver medal)
Italy (silver medal)
Canada (bronze medal)
TBD
TBD
TBD
Women’s
USA (automatic bid, silver medal)
Canada (gold medal)
Mexico (bronze medal)
TBD
TBD
TBD
The final three spots for each field will be determined via Olympic Q-Series competition in 2028 that takes place in two stages. Competition will be held in Montreal from June 1-4 and in Orlando, Florida from June 8-11.
Flag football will makes its Olympics debut for the Los Angeles Games that are scheduled to start on July 14, 2028. While the six above teams have qualified, rosters have not been set.
Each qualifying team’s national Olympic committee will determine their respective Olympic roster prior to the 2028 Games. That means that NFL players who are in training camps and not at the IFAF championships this weekend could ultimately be selected to play.