Haudenosaunee Nationals a step closer to being in the Olympics with inclusion of lacrosse

The inclusion of lacrosse in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles brings members of the Haudenosaunee Nationals lacrosse teams a step closer to being Olympic contenders.

The International Olympic Committee announced Monday that lacrosse and four other sports would be added to the 2028 Games.

The Haudenosaunee Nationals, made up of athletes from the Haudenosaunee Confederacy which includes the Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk), Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora nations, are members of World Lacrosse, the international governing body of lacrosse, and compete at the global level.

In men's box lacrosse, they're ranked second in the world and in women's field lacrosse, they're ranked eighth.

Fawn Porter, who is Cayuga from Six Nations of the Grand River near Hamilton, Ont., plays for the Haudenosaunee Nationals women's team in both box and field lacrosse. She's been playing since she was "as tall as the goal posts" — around six or seven years old. 

Now 26, Porter said she's "stoked" about the announcement. 

"We actually have a chance to be Olympians now," she said, adding there's still a lot of work she and her teammates would need to do to compete at that level.

"We're going to be there on the forefront to help with the men, to provide that good medicine to the world and I really feel like we're going to remind everyone what it is to play a sport."

The last time lacrosse was played in the Olympics was in 1904 when Canada fielded two teams: the Shamrock Lacrosse team and one called the Mohawk Indians, made up of Kanien'kehá:ka players, who won the bronze medal.

Kevin Sandy, First Nations director of Lacrosse Canada said the sport's inclusion in the Olympics is the first step in getting the Haudenosaunee Nationals teams