New Olympic sport flag football debuts at Panama 2026, Argentina squad | OneFootball

Among the 22 sports at the Panama 2026 South American Youth Games, there is one that is not very familiar to the average Argentine public. It is flag football, a form of American football with no contact or tackles, which entered the Olympic scene when it was chosen as one of the five sports to be added to the program for Los Angeles 2028 and is now making its debut at this continental event for athletes between 14 and 17 years old.

In Panama, medals will be awarded in both the women’s and men’s competitions, in a four-team tournament. The teams were invited to the event (in South America, youth national teams are only just beginning to form), and Argentina will be there. The sky-blue-and-white squad did not have much time to prepare for this competition, but it is still aiming high.

“The invitation and inclusion in the South American Games came a bit at the last minute, so we didn’t have as much time to work as I would have liked,” Juan Manuel Sesto, head of the team at these Games and president of the FAA, the national federation for the sport, explained in an interview with Clarín.

“We have a lot of kids playing in our flag football league, so many of the national team members came from there. And some others joined in after discovering the sport at that time, and once they started to understand it, they never stopped. A really nice group came together, and they’ve been training continuously since December,” he added.

The tournament will be played in a single group, with home-and-away round-robin matches and teams of five players. The top team in the standings will then face the fourth-place team in one semifinal, while the second and third-place teams will meet in the other. The podium will then be decided on Sunday with a bronze-medal match and the gold-medal game.

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Football Americano Argentina (@faargonline)

The goal in each game is to score the highest number of points through a touchdown, which consists of carrying the ball into the end zone. And since there is no contact, instead of tackling an opponent to prevent a score, it is enough to pull off one of the strips (or flags) tied to either side of their waist.

Argentina will face Uruguay this Friday at 10:00, Brazil at 1:45 p.m., and Panama, one of the continental powers, at 6:45 p.m. On Saturday, they will first play Brazil (11:15), then the host nation (15:00), and close against Uruguay (17:30).

“The truth is that we don’t know much about the other countries, but the kids are learning very quickly. The first two matchdays will be key for growth and for correcting mistakes. Our goal is to reach the medal standings and bring a medal back to Argentina,” Sesto said.

A strong showing by the young Argentines could boost the development of a sport that has been played in the country for a long time, even if it is not that well known—there are teams and competitions in Buenos Aires, Mar del Plata, Rosario, Córdoba, Mendoza, Concepción del Uruguay, Paraná and Tucumán—and which has been growing steadily year after year.

“The sport grabs you once you start to understand it,” Sesto said. “It’s attractive because of the style of play, it has a lot of strategy, and it’s easy to play. You need a ball, some flags attached at the sides with a belt, and that’s it. You don’t even need that much space. People of all ages can play it. And it’s pretty simple.”

As the president of the FAA explained, flag football arrived in Argentina between 1993 and 1994, although in different formats (with more contact) than the one that will be Olympic in two years. But after the pandemic it started growing much more, and that association began promoting the “5-on-5” version that will debut at Los Angeles 2028.

“From that point on, growth was explosive. And although we had already represented the country in other formats at international tournaments, in 2022 the national team’s journey in the current form of flag began. That year we played in the South American Championship in Brazil, where we were runners-up. Then we took part in a continental tournament in Charlotte, United States, where we finished fifth, a great result; and in the World Championship in Finland in 2024 (Editor’s note: Third in the group with a 1-2 record). And last year we played in the continental tournament in Panama, where we were battling neck and neck with Brazil,” added the man who is currently in Panama accompanying the Argentine players.

At the South American level, Argentina is fighting for first place shoulder to shoulder with Brazil. “We have competed against Chile, Uruguay, Colombia and managed to beat them. But with Brazil, we’re right there together—the games we play are always even and tight,” Sesto explained. At the continental level, Panama, Mexico, the United States and Canada hold a big advantage because they are the founders of the sport and have a more deeply rooted culture around it. Still, they have been “growing in technical and athletic terms and in the foundations of the sport” and “closing the gap with the strongest countries.”

The twelve young players, aged 15 and 16, carrying the Argentine flag at the South American Games are Francisco Steinborn, Lucas Seeling, Felipe Lisazo, Valentino Volgin, Daniel Argerich, Valentín López Bige, Benjamín Viale, Isao Gil, Mateo Liatti, Santino Catena, Joaquín Sueiro Martín and Tomás Bosco. Several of them have strong potential looking ahead to Los Angeles 2028. Not to pursue qualification next year, since they must be 18 or older for that, but perhaps to join the senior national team if a spot at the Games is secured, the ultimate dream of Argentine flag football.

“Dreaming is always possible. It’s nice to have that carrot out in front of you to chase. The reality is that it’s very difficult, but we don’t think about it that way,” Sesto acknowledged.

“Next year is vital for us, because the Continental Championship that qualifies for the Olympic Games will be played. It’s difficult, but not impossible. We’ve been preparing for several years and I think we’ll be up to the level of the competition. We’re going to try to arrive at that tournament in our best form, compete, and see what happens. There’s always a chance, and we’re going to go all the way. Hopefully it happens, and if not, we’ll know we gave it our all. Brazil and we are relatively new countries in the sport, but we know we’re on the right path,” he concluded.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.