{"id":257819,"date":"2026-08-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/14\/olympic-spots-on-the-line-at-flag-football-world-championships-the-gist-2\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T00:00:00","slug":"olympic-spots-on-the-line-at-flag-football-world-championships-the-gist-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/14\/olympic-spots-on-the-line-at-flag-football-world-championships-the-gist-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympic spots on the line at flag football World Championships | The GIST"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>The GIST: <\/strong>ICYMI: Flag football is giving \u201cit girl\u201d \u2014 there\u2019s a new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/news\/nfl-partners-tmrw-sports-new-professional-flag-football-league\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">NFL\u2013backed pro league<\/a>, the sport will debut at the 2028 LA Olympics, and women\u2019s flag is on the rise.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Enter: This weekend\u2019s World Championships, yet another opportunity to watch the surging sport shine. Hut, hut, here we go.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u261d\ufe0f Flag football isn\u2019t tackle football: <\/strong>It sounds obvious, but<strong> <\/strong>that\u2019s why<strong> <\/strong>NFL MVPs aren\u2019t suiting up. Flag demands a very different skill set, one where elusiveness, spatial awareness, and hand-eye coordination (that flag is <em>small<\/em>) reign supreme. Plus, the absence of hard hits means more games can be played in a shorter period of time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83c\udfc6 How it works: <\/strong>Two Olympic spots are on the line for both the women and men at Worlds. That said, because the Games are in LA, both American teams automatically qualified, meaning the top two finishers <em>excluding<\/em> the U.S. will punch their tickets this weekend. The remaining three spots for both Olympic tourneys will be awarded at a two-stage qualifier in June 2028.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 Don\u2019t let those pre-punched tickets fool you, neither American squad has had trouble finding the endzone. The No. 2 undefeated gals play Spain to wrap up the group-stage, which is currently underway, while the No. 1 men battle Australia in their final group-stage game at 9:30 a.m. ET.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\ud83d\udcaa Players to watch: <\/strong>The American women are anchored by veteran linebacker and three-time world champ Deliah Autry-Jones, along with former pro hooper Loryn Goodwin, who swapped sneakers for cleats just three years ago. Meanwhile, Team USA quarterback Darrell \u201cHoush\u201d Doucette\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsports.com\/nfl\/profootballtalk\/rumor-mill\/news\/nfl-players-are-out-of-their-element-vs-u-s-mens-flag-team\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">already made good<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/story\/2024-08-21\/darrell-doucette-patrick-mahomes-flag-football-olympics-2028-los-angeles\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">his viral claim<\/a> from 2024.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\n  n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\n  document,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n  fbq('init', '1716705275141133'); \/\/ Insert your pixel ID here.\n  fbq('track', 'PageView');\n      <\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegistsports.com\/article\/flag-world-championships\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The GIST: ICYMI: Flag football is giving \u201cit girl\u201d \u2014 there\u2019s a new NFL\u2013backed pro league, the sport will debut at the 2028 LA Olympics, and women\u2019s flag is on the rise. Enter: This weekend\u2019s World Championships, yet another opportunity to watch the surging sport shine. Hut, hut, here we go. \u261d\ufe0f Flag football isn\u2019t [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":257820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6805],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-257819","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-womens"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}