Team USA flag football will prepare for its next world championship run in Southern California.
USA Football announced that the U.S. national flag football program will use the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center as a 2026 preparation home while the men's and women's teams build toward the IFAF Flag Football World Championships in Düsseldorf, Germany.
For SoCal families, coaches and athletes, the announcement matters for a simple reason: one of the sport's most important national-team pathways is now connected directly to San Diego County.
At a Glance
- Program: Team USA flag football
- Training site: Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center in Chula Vista, California
- What happens there: U.S. National Team Trials and Training Camp in 2026
- Major event: 2026 IFAF Flag Football World Championships in Düsseldorf, Germany
- Olympic connection: Chula Vista is an official U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Site
- Source: USA Football
Why Chula Vista Matters
The Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center is already part of the U.S. high-performance sports ecosystem. USA Football's announcement places flag football alongside national governing bodies that use the center for international preparation, including USA Archery, U.S. Rowing, USA Rugby and USA Track & Field.
Eric Mayes, USA Football's managing director for high performance and national teams, called Chula Vista "a hub for high-performance sport and Olympic-level preparation." That is the point for flag football: the sport is no longer only growing at the local league level. It is being built like a true international sport.
The center also recently secured a new 10-year agreement with the City of Chula Vista to support athlete and program preparation for major global events, including the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Team USA's World Championship Standard
Team USA enters the 2026 cycle with a massive target on its back. According to USA Football, the U.S. men's national team has won five consecutive IFAF Flag Football World Championships, while the U.S. women's national team has won the last three.
The international field is also getting deeper. The 2024 IFAF Flag Football World Championship in Lahti, Finland, was the largest in event history, with 32 men's national teams and 23 women's national teams from six continents.
That scale is important for the LA28 conversation. Olympic flag football will be small in roster size, but the path to those roster spots is becoming more competitive every year.
The Youth and Women's Pathway
USA Football also pointed to its youth national-team structure, including the Junior International Cup for girls and boys in 15U and 17U divisions. That gives younger athletes a visible bridge between local flag football, national-team identification and future international competition.
The women's side has another major tailwind. Flag football was added to the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program in January, and the University of Nebraska became the first Power Four school to announce a women's flag football program ahead of LA28.
For Southern California players, the message is clear: the same region hosting Olympic flag football in 2028 is also becoming part of the year-round national-team development map.
What to Watch Next
The key next details will be the 2026 Team USA trials and training camp schedule, the final World Championship roster process and any public-facing events connected to the Chula Vista training site.
USA Football did not announce exact trial dates or roster details in this release. Until those dates are confirmed, families and athletes should treat this as a national-team pathway marker rather than an open registration announcement.
Source: USA Football