Sixes on the world stage: The World Games, the 2026 qualifiers and the 2027 championships.

Status on 23 October 2026

Results from World Lacrosse's own headlines and releases. The four continental events are the first step of qualifying for lacrosse at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics; the full pathway is on lacrosse at the Olympics. How the sixes game itself works, under World Lacrosse's sixes rule book, is on the sixes page.

The 2026 continental sixes championships

Pan-American, Oshawa (finished 4 October 2026). World Lacrosse set the event for 29 September to 4 October 2026 at Oshawa Civic Fields. Its headlines report that the United States won both golds over Canada in close finals, that Puerto Rico's men qualified on day five, and that Argentina's women (17-11 winners over Jamaica in the fifth-place game) and Brazil's men took the last places. The final scores (men 12-11, women 15-14) and the bronze games come from a single local news report, insauga.com, that we saw only as a search summary because the page refused access; treat them as unconfirmed. We did not find World Lacrosse's closing release, so we do not give a list of every team that qualified from this event.

Asia-Pacific, Sunshine Coast (finished 10 October 2026). Played from 5 to 10 October 2026 at Sunshine Coast Stadium in the Kawana Sports Precinct, Queensland. World Lacrosse's headlines say Australia won the men's title and Japan the women's, each final decided by one goal, and that the Philippines' and Korea's women won play-in games to qualify. The final scores and the full list of qualifiers were not found.

European, Salou (upcoming). World Lacrosse's release of 30 October 2025 gives women's dates of 2 to 9 November 2026 and men's dates of 10 to 18 November 2026 at the Mediterranean Sports Hub, hosted by the European Lacrosse Federation and Espana Lacrosse. A later World Lacrosse article was summarised as giving "2 to 18 November" for the whole event; that is simply the span of the two.

African, Johannesburg (upcoming). World Lacrosse's release of 20 May 2026 gives 3 to 5 December 2026 at St Stithians College, hosted by South Africa Lacrosse, with the top men's and women's team each going through. A search summary of another World Lacrosse page gave 1 to 4 December. The two versions differ; we use the release we read, but check the dates closer to the event.

World Lacrosse's February 2026 qualification system allots five places per gender at the 2027 championships from each of the Pan-American, Asia-Pacific and European events and one from the African event.

The first World Lacrosse Sixes Championships, 2027

World Lacrosse announced on 27 August 2026 that the first World Lacrosse Sixes Championships will be played from 4 to 10 October 2027 at Weidner Field, Colorado Springs, with 16 men's and 16 women's teams from the four continental regions. It is the main qualifier for the Olympic tournament. No team can be named champion before then.

When the first sixes world championship falls, two versions. World Lacrosse calls the 2027 event the first. Wikipedia, in a search summary, said the first sixes world championships would be held in 2026. The difference has a known cause: World Lacrosse said in November 2023 that it expected a sixes world championship in 2026, and the event was later set for 2027. We follow World Lacrosse's current date.

Lacrosse at The World Games

World Lacrosse's World Games page lists three appearances so far: women's field lacrosse, ten a side, at Wroclaw, Poland, in 2017; men's and women's sixes at Birmingham, Alabama, in 2022, which it calls the global debut of sixes; and women's sixes only at Chengdu, China, in 2025. The same page says men's and women's sixes are confirmed for Karlsruhe in 2029.

Birmingham 2022 (finished)

• Men: Canada beat the United States 23-9 at PNC Field, Birmingham, on 12 July 2022, winning all five games and the first men's lacrosse gold at The World Games (World Lacrosse). Japan beat Great Britain 19-18 in overtime for bronze, Kazuki Obana scoring the winner; World Lacrosse called it the first medal for a Japan team at a senior world-level event. The eight men's teams were Canada, the United States, Great Britain, Japan, Germany, Israel, Australia and the Haudenosaunee.
• Women: Canada beat the United States 14-12 (World Lacrosse, release of 16 July 2022; Lacrosse Canada), Canada's first senior women's world-level gold by World Lacrosse's account. Australia beat Great Britain 13-7 for bronze (World Lacrosse).

The women's final score. Lacrosse Canada and World Lacrosse give 14-12. A Wikipedia table of World Games finals was reported in a search summary to list 23-9 for the women's final, which is the men's score; it looks like an error on Wikipedia, and we use 14-12.

How the Haudenosaunee came to play at Birmingham is on Haudenosaunee Nationals results.

Chengdu 2025 (finished; women only)

Eight women's teams of 12 players took part: Australia, Canada, China, Czechia, Great Britain, Ireland, Japan and the United States, with Ireland and Czechia qualifying by topping a 12-team European qualifier (World Lacrosse, 4 August 2025). A USA Lacrosse schedule announcement, seen as a search summary, said there would be no men's event in 2025; we found no World Lacrosse or World Games statement giving a reason.

• Dates, two versions: World Lacrosse gives 7 to 11 August 2025 (pool play 7 to 9 August, semi-finals 10 August, medal games 11 August); Wikipedia, in a search summary, gives 7 to 10 August. We use World Lacrosse's dates.
• Gold: United States 16, Canada 8, on 11 August 2025 (World Lacrosse closing release).
• Bronze: Australia 13, Japan 12 in overtime, Georgia Latch scoring the golden goal after Australia came back from three goals down in the second half.
• Semi-final: Canada beat Australia 21-4 (Lacrosse Canada).
• Final standings: 1 United States, 2 Canada, 3 Australia, 4 Japan, 5 Great Britain, 6 Czechia, 7 Ireland, 8 China, after 18 games and 514 goals.
• Awards: Marie McCool of the United States was most valuable player.

The 2025 Super Sixes, Oshawa

World Lacrosse's report of 12 October 2025 says Canada won both titles at the Super Sixes on home soil, with medals also for the United States men, the Haudenosaunee men and Australia's women. The Haudenosaunee men beat Australia 14-13 for bronze, and Canada White beat the Haudenosaunee women 14-8 in the women's bronze game. The women's final score is given two ways: Canada Red 14, Australia 12 by World Lacrosse, and 14-11 by Turtle Island News (15 October 2025). We use World Lacrosse's score.

The Premier Lacrosse League and the Women's Lacrosse League also play a winter sixes event, their Championship Series; its results are on professional leagues.