Pioneer Phoebe Schecter helped build flag football in Britain. Now she’s making a play for LA28: “I think I would regret it if I did not give it a try”

“When you're out of your comfort zone, you're so much more willing to take risks. And it’s changed the complete trajectory of my life”, says Phoebe Schecter, earnestly.

The Great Britain flag football player is speaking to Olympics.com over a video call from a hotel room in Chengdu, People’s Republic of China, host of The World Games 2025, and where she is competing from 14-17 August.

Schecter, along with the rest of the team, travelled out to the Sichuan province a week in advance to start the acclimatisation process early. The rainy season, with its suffocating heat and sweltering humidity count, provides significantly challenging playing conditions - and is unlike anything a typical British summer throws up.

The subject of the weather lends itself to natural small talk, but it becomes even more relevant as Schecter explains her remarkable journey to where she is now.

Today, the 35-year-old is a celebrated polymath of her sport: currently an international flag football player, formerly an international tackle football player, a qualified coach with time spent in the NFL, a TV pundit, and an NFL Flag Football ambassador; hers makes for an impressive resumé.

But, in 2012, when the British-American dual national first flew from Connecticut, United States, to Manchester, England, in pursuit of an opportunity in equestrian, she had no idea that the sport would come to dominate her life.

She also confesses, she didn’t expect that the British weather would be quite so bad.

“In every aspect, I would say living in England by myself at 22 was really tough,” Schecter starts. “Up north, it’s not always that pleasant in December. And I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, what have I gotten myself into living here?’

“We were working six days a week, sometimes seven. I made £25 a day, literally living off sweet corn in a tin. It was definitely a challenge. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, what have I done?’”

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