The Great Britain women’s flag football team fell short in their bid to secure an Olympic berth at the World Championships in Germany, suffering a 27-21 semi-final defeat to the United States on Saturday.
GB had advanced to the semi-finals as group winners before defeating Panama 26-20 in the quarter-finals. Against the USA, the British side initially dominated, building a 21-7 lead in the first half with tries from Grace Conway, Angelica Tait, and Emily Kemp. However, the defending world champions mounted a comeback to claim victory and advance directly to the final.
Flag football is set to make its Olympic debut at Los Angeles 2028, with two qualifying spots available for both men and women at this tournament. Since the USA qualifies automatically as the host nation, the winner of Sunday’s bronze-medal match will secure the remaining women’s Olympic spot. GB will face the loser of the Canada-Mexico semi-final contest, which Canada won 20-6 to advance to their first World final since 2014.
GB currently ranks third globally after winning the previous two European Championships. Mexico holds the top ranking following losses in the past two World final matchups against the USA, though they defeated the Americans in the 2022 and 2025 World Games finals.
On the men’s side, the GB team experienced a challenging opening to the tournament, losing 50-35 to Switzerland in their first ranking game before rebounding with a 28-20 victory over Austria. They will compete on Sunday for a 13th or 14th place finish against Brazil.
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