When Italian flag football player Nausicaa Dell’Orto first took up the game as a teenager, her father would throw her equipment in the trash. He told her women shouldn’t play the game, and he would sometimes emphasize his words by hitting her. But she kept playing, and the sport helped her find the strength to get away from her abusive home.
“You know, my dad used to tell me, football won’t get you anywhere,” Dell’Orto said. “You will just get hurt. It’s a waste of time. Leave it. Well, now nobody can say that to their daughter anymore, because [the sport is in the] Olympics. Their dreams are bigger than us. This is bigger than us.”
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Dell’Orto and some of the world’s best flag football players are in Chengdu, China, this week for the World Games, a wide-ranging sports festival with an array of events that may not yet be at the Olympic level, like cheerleading or jiu-jitsu, and some that you may not realize exist, like korfball or tug of war.
Flag football might have started as a game you played in P.E. class, but it’s becoming a sport you won’t be able to — or want to — ignore. In 2023, flag football was added to the Olympic program for the 2028 Los Angeles Games. It’s already been growing at an exponential rate, with the NFL helping spread it worldwide and allowing its players to compete. Now, with the backing of the IOC, countries that had not previously played the sport, like China, will get the chance to face off at the World Games.
For the women gathered to play flag football in Chengdu, finding the sport changed the trajectory of their lives. It’s a sport that gave Dell’Orto strength and the ability to get away from an awful situation. She’s played on the Italian national team, is an NFL global flag football ambassador and a Jordan Brand athlete. Her father still doesn’t know what she’s accomplished in the sport.
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“At some point, I started not telling him the truth and just really not having a relationship with him,” she said. “And at first I had to hide my stuff at my teammate’s house because I was 16. But then when I grew older, I was just thinking, like, hey, like, sometimes the support from your parents, it just comes naturally. Sometimes it doesn’t, and you just have to accept that the person is like that.
“You have to find your passion and your people in your passion. That’s what I found. I found my world in football. It doesn’t matter if my dad watches me or not. Doesn’t matter if he knows if I’m playing or not. The right people know I’m playing, the right people I meet at the tournaments, the people around me. When you find your passion, you find your people.”
That passion will be on display in Chengdu as eight teams vie for the championship. Mexico won the last World Games in 2022, but the U.S. won the world championship in 2024. Those two teams are expected to contend for the title, but Japan, the 2024 bronze medalists, and Austria, the best of the European teams, are also expected to have a good showing. China, Canada, Great Britain and Italy round out the field of eight.
Vanita Krouch is the most decorated athlete in U.S. women’s national team history. (Courtesy IFAF)
Vanita Krouch, the quarterback of Team USA, is looking forward to not just showing how the sport has grown in popularity, but also how it has grown in technical skill. It’s not a watered-down version of tackle football. Flag is its own sport with its own strategy.
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“Our dance is very different from the tackle dance. So the scheme of how we play has evolved a lot more,” Krouch said. “So over my time of playing, I just think the teams are getting so much more advanced in their scheme and creativity on the fundamental levels.”
Each team has five players on the field at a time, and the field is 70 yards by 25. Removing a player’s flag stops the movement of the ball. The game is fast, and the quarterback has to make decisions quickly as there isn’t an offensive line protecting her. Agility and the ability to make quick cuts to avoid defenders reaching for a flag are prized qualities on the flag football field.
While the sport has grown in scope and sophistication, and women like Mexico’s Diana Flores have starred in commercials for the NFL, its players aren’t quite at the level where they can quit their full-time jobs. Krouch is a physical education teacher in Texas, and is also the school’s daycare director. She routinely works 11-hour days, works out, eats, then goes back to sleep to repeat the cycle again.
“It’s our passion, and when you love something so much and it gives you the sisterhood, your lifelong friends, you’re going to sacrifice everything that you need to. The balance is really, really hard. I’m not going to lie,” Krouch said. “There’s some times where I am not wanting to hit the weight room. I’m not wanting to get my throws out there, but being that we all live remotely across the country, we’re not training together 24/7, what you do in your hometown makes a difference and it affects your teammates in your org and how you represent each other.”
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Her school district in the Dallas area started classes this week. Krouch said they will have to wait to see “Coach V” in class, but she is also eager to tell her students about her experiences with the U.S. team. She wants to inspire the next generation to find their passion.
“You see it, you believe it, you want to be it,” Krouch said. “So I’ve always lived on the motto of representation matters, and to be able to represent that for my little girls, it’s amazing to be on that spot. Let them know, like you can do this, it’s happening. It’s not going anywhere, and it’s across the world. And so coming back and being that light for them. As much as they feel I’m inspiring them? The funny part is they inspire me. They’re my why to continue doing what I’m doing.”
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The World Games flag football tournament starts on Wednesday evening with the U.S. playing Canada at 9 p.m. ET. You can watch on the World Games site.