Field lacrosse in the context of "Box lacrosse"

A stadium (pl.: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event. Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event at the ancient Greek Olympic festival was the race that comprised one length of the stadion at Olympia, where the word "stadium" originated. Most of the stadiums with a capacity of at least 10,000 are used for association football. Other popular stadium sports include gridiron football, baseball, cricket, the various codes of rugby, field lacrosse, bandy, and bullfighting. Many large sports venues are also used for concerts.

Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively modified by European colonists, reducing the violence, to create its current collegiate and professional form.

Players use the head of the lacrosse stick to carry, pass, catch, and shoot the ball into the goal. The sport has five versions that have different sticks, fields, rules and equipment: field lacrosse, women's lacrosse, box lacrosse, lacrosse sixes and intercrosse. The men's games, field lacrosse (outdoor) and box lacrosse (indoor), are contact sports and all players wear protective gear: helmet, gloves, shoulder pads, and elbow pads. The women's game is played outdoors and does not allow body contact but does allow stick to stick contact. The only protective gear required for women players is eyegear, while goalies wear helmets and protective pads. Lacrosse sixes is played by both men and women on a smaller field and is the most common version at multi-sport events. Intercrosse is a mixed-gender non-contact sport that uses an all-plastic stick and a softer ball.

The sport of field lacrosse was played at the 1904 Summer Olympics, which marked the first time that lacrosse had been featured at the Olympic Games. Three teams participated — two from Canada and one from the United States. One of the Canadian teams consisted entirely of Mohawk nation players. The victorious Shamrock Lacrosse Team is more commonly known as the Winnipeg Shamrocks.

A second American team, the Brooklyn Crescents, was entered but did not participate: they were scheduled to play a semi-final against the Shamrocks, but arrived too late and were disqualified.

A field lacrosse game was played between Canada and Great Britain at the 1908 Summer Olympics. The game was tied 9-9 in the fourth period, before Canada scored 5 straight goals to pull ahead. Canada won 14-10 to earn their second of two gold medals, the only lacrosse gold medals given out in the Olympic Games.

Women's lacrosse (or girls' lacrosse), sometimes shortened to lax, is a field sport played at the international level with two opposing teams of ten players each (12 players per team at the U.S. domestic level). Originally played by indigenous peoples of the Americas, the modern women's game was introduced in 1890 at the St Leonard's School in St Andrews, Scotland. The rules of women's lacrosse differ significantly from men's field lacrosse. The two are often considered to be different sports with a common root.

The object of the game is to use a long-handled stick (known as a crosse or lacrosse stick) to catch, cradle, and pass a solid rubber lacrosse ball in an effort to score by hurling the ball into an opponent's goal. Cradling is a technique of moving the wrists and arms in a semi-circular motion to keep the ball in the pocket of the stick's head using centripetal force. The head of the lacrosse stick has a mesh or leather net strung into it that allows the player to hold the ball. Defensively, the object is to keep the opposing team from scoring and to dispossess them of the ball through the use of stick checking and body positioning. The rules of women's lacrosse are different from the men's lacrosse game. Equipment required to play is also different from the men's. In the United States, women are only required to wear eyewear or lacrosse goggles and a mouth guard. The stick has restrictions too, as it must be a certain length and the pocket must be shallow enough to show the ball above the side when held at eye level.

Lacrosse sixes (also known as World Lacrosse Sixes) is a version of lacrosse played outdoors with six players on each side. The game follows similar rules to traditional field lacrosse, with modifications and a shorter game time, and is considered to be more fast-paced. Sixes has been described as a hybrid discipline of field and box lacrosse as well as a different sport entirely.

Lacrosse sixes was created in 2021 by World Lacrosse, the global governing body for lacrosse, in a bid to achieve lacrosse's participation in the Olympic Games. It will make its Olympic debut in 2028.

Ray Van Orman (January 25, 1884 – May 24, 1954) was an American veterinarian and college football and lacrosse coach. He served as the head lacrosse and football coach at Johns Hopkins University, from 1920 to 1935 and 1926 to 1935 respectively, and the head lacrosse coach at Cornell University from 1940 to 1949. Van Orman was inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1992.