There will be a new look about the Canadian women’s national team at The World Games in August and at the 2025 IFAF Americas Flag Football Championships.

The 2023 continental championship and the 2024 IFAF Flag Football world Championships saw the Canadians field a team drawn predominantly from the prior year’s national club champion from Quebec. Now, Canada will field a true national team sourced from coast to coast across all provinces.

“Part of the reasoning of having the national champions was because it allowed them to train together; it was just the most cost-effective option and we knew it we had highly skilled teams still that way because they were the best in Canada,” explains Football Canada High Performance Director Katie Miyazaki.

“We weren't able to provide them with financial support, to bring them in for camps, so this year we have hosted seven camps across Canada to try and identify people for our final selection camp.”

Having completed those identification camps at the end of March, a follow up camp in May will trim a squad of 50 players down to in the region of 18 athletes who will become Canada’s pool this year for the pair of IFAF competitions.

“Canada being a big country, it's really hard to get to train together, so having these ID camps and getting the best players together in the buildup to the tournaments is where we’re now focusing our energy,” added Miyazaki. “Going to the different provinces made it more likely a broad range of athletes would attend, particularly those from other sports who might not have traveled across the country to try out otherwise. We have also seen players in those areas who might be selected in the future, and we can now keep tabs on them, now that we’re aware that they’re out there.”

The camps were not only an opportunity for athletes to stake a claim for a place on the Canada roster, but also for coaches to put themselves in the frame for the opportunity to lead Canada in Chengdu and beyond. Head coaches for both the women’s and men’s teams will be appointed in the near future and Football Canada also plans to establish a coaching pool that will assist in scouting players.

“We’re selecting head coaches to lead not only the team but the whole program and to continue the development process,” added Miyazaki. “They need to develop a chemistry and create successful teams.”

To identify additional potential athletes, Football Canada worked with RBC Training Ground, a talent identification and athlete funding program designed to find young athletes with Olympic potential. Miyazaki herself is a former basketball player.

“Flag football is such an interesting sport, but there isn't a true profile of what makes the best flag football player,” she said. “There's so many different things that go into it so we would love to see more athletes from other sports playing flag. I think it just increases our pool of athletes. Those that have been playing flag know a lot of the intricacies of this sport and how it works and they're kind of fine-tuned, so it's going to be very difficult paring down the squad as we go forward.”

Canada navigated a tough group at the 2024 IFAF Flag Football World Championships in Finland last summer, beating Italy and Korea and losing my ten points to Mexico. Panama was dispatched in the quarterfinals, but Mexico booked their place in the Gold Medal game at Canada’s expense. Great Britain and Spain were beaten as Canada finished fifth overall and qualified for The World Games.

The 2025 IFAF calendar demanding a tournament focus on two fronts means players and coaches must juggle a work-life balance with two significant overseas journeys in pursuit of success. With that comes a financial burden, but also an opportunity to further establish Canada on the world stage and to experience a tournament similar in make up to the ultimate goal: a place at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

“The World Games is probably going to be the closest you can get to that multi-games, multi-sport experience,” says Miyazaki, who was an assistant coach for Canada’s women’s wheelchair basketball team at the 2016 Rio Paralympics and head coach at two Canada Games, in 2015 and 2019.

“I've worked in the four-year cycle and it's so hard because there can be so many ups and downs. You’ve got to focus on the events for this year but you're also focusing on your big goal of the Olympics. You can't forget all those little pieces and steps along the way, and I think it's very exciting for flag football for people to have that big thing to work towards.”

Currently ranked sixth in the world having risen three places from 2023, Canada’s women’s team faces a challenging group stage at The World Games against world champions USA, Europe’s top-ranked team Austria and host China.