The Olympic journey continues ...

I was unsure whether to write a blog for this Olympics. Given I am not on the ice anymore I didn’t know if people would be interested to read it, but more importantly I now know that being off the ice means I’ll be even busier at this Olympics than I was as an official.  I may not have as much time to write blogs and so they may not be as frequent or as detailed as I would normally like.   However, my friends and family have told me that they want to live the Olympic dream again and I need to find time to share the experiences even if the blogs are short and every couple of days.  So I'm willing to give it and go.

I’ll do my best to update it every few days and hope you enjoy my Olympic journey as it continues …

February 2018 – significant for me for a number of reasons: 

• My home town (Romford) opens its new ice rink after having no ice rink for the last few years;
• It is 12 years after my first Olympic experience (Torino 2006);
• It is four years since I retired from on-ice officiating;
• I have been selected to go to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang as a Referee Supervisor.

Why I love Romford! 

I’m 35 years old.  I’ve been involved in ice hockey officiating since I was 14.  My entire adult life is framed by the fact that I have an obsession with skating up and down and having people yell at me, whilst I do my best to ensure a game is played fairly with the rules administered and applied in an appropriate manner.  If I’m honest, perhaps my love affair with officiating isn’t down to the level of abuse that seems to come with the role, but more down to the life skills and experiences it has afforded me, and the general adrenaline buzz of being involved in the fastest game in existence.

Old Romford Ice Rink

I will always be grateful that when I was 11 years old, my home town had an ice rink.  Granted, it was not the nicest facility in the country and some may argue it was actually a bit of an eye sore.  Regardless of your view on the aesthetics of the building, it was a facility which enabled me to get involved in a sport which has shaped so much of my life and who I am as a person today.  Those of you that know me will know my views on life and grasping opportunities when they present themselves. In life I believe for anyone to be successful they need to plan and prepare but most importantly they need a bit of luck and an opportunity.  I’ve been fortunate to have success as an official at the top level in the world but I’m pretty thankful that I also was afforded the opportunities I need along the way.  Had I grown up in a town with no ice rink then I may have missed the sport completely and my life would be very different today.

Me with my Dad in the old Romford ice rink

Romford ice rink was closed down in 2013 on the promise of the local council planning and opening a new facility which would be bigger, better, shinier and all things to all people.  There was a lot of scepticism about whether a new rink would be built.  People had seen in other places around the country, a rink closed down with good intentions to build a new one, but government’s change, council’s change, spending priorities change, the plans get put on hold and eventually canned, and the promised new facility never materialises.  The ideal is always to keep the old rink open while the new facility is being built.  In the case of Romford, the petitions at the time were unsuccessful, and as a result the rink closed its doors.  It was a sad day for the community.  It was a sad day for me.  It was where my love affair with the sport began, where I had made so many friends and where I had so many memories of being with my Dad.

It has taken 5 years but finally the new ice rink is ready to open its doors and once again provide the opportunity to a new generation of children to get involved and inspired by ice hockey.  Dad will have been gone 7 years this August and so much has happened since then.  He wouldn’t have liked the old rink closing but he would be very excited and pleased about the new rink opening and I’m also sure he would have been annoying the council with his views on it for the past few years.

On 3 February 2018 the Raiders will play their first home game in the new rink.  Along with a few other veteran referees (Dave Cloutman, Rene Ross and a few others), I have been invited to attend the game.  I am honoured to be asked to attend and looking forward to what the future holds for the club, and the community, now it finally has a facility it deserves.  Three days later I will fly to the Olympics in Pyeongchang, this time as a Referee Supervisor for the IIHF rather than an on-ice official. 

New Sapphire Ice and Leisure Rink in Romford

So, for me, February 2018 is full of excitement and anticipation.  The beginning of a new era, firstly a new generation in Romford finally being given the opportunity to engage with a sport I love, and secondly, for me, an important step in my new role of inspiring and helping others to achieve success.

The journey since Sochi 2014 … 

Many of you will have read my blog when I was in Sochi and will know the emotional roller-coaster I was on.  Losing my dad in 2011 had a big impact on my life and I had refocused and spent 3 years sleeping, eating, training and reffing, all with one goal in mind – get to the Olympics and do myself and his memory proud.  The rest is history, as they say, and refereeing a gold medal game at an Olympics is everything you could imagine and much more.

On the Olympic Ice in Sochi

Most of you will have experienced the feeling of “post-holiday blues” at some point after you have been on an amazing trip or had an amazing experience.  Well returning home after an Olympic final was tough and I crashed hard.  One minute I was in the Bolshoy Ice Dome at the Olympics, the next minute I was at Peterborough ice rink with pigeons flying around and someone yelling at me because they were convinced I didn’t know the rules as well as them.  I had gone from every day being an adventure and something new, to being back at my desk at work looking at spreadsheets and wondering if I was ever going to feel excited again!  My trainer had gone back to Australia – I was still getting up at 5am to go to the gym but without any real understanding of why I was training.  I needed a new goal and focus, and my friends and family were trying to help with that, but every suggestion was met with my response, “Its’ hardly as exciting as refereeing an Olympic Final is it?”  I had become a princess who was addicted to the adrenaline and rush of being at the Olympics.  I needed a new focus …

Me with Yahya training the referees in Abu Dhabi

My new focus didn’t take long to find.  Over the summer of 2014 I attended an IIHF Female Officials Development Camp in Finland as a Referee Instructor and from that moment on I got the bug for instructing and helping others achieve their goals.  The IIHF were looking to help the United Arab Emirates find a Referee Chief to set-up an officiating programme and train up a local to run the officiating programme for them in the future.  Within a few weeks I had quit my job in London, packed my bags and was headed to the dessert to establish the referee programme in the UAE.  I spent 2 seasons working in Abu Dhabi and Dubai setting up an officiating programme and training up a local to take it over and own it for the future.  My decision to step off the ice as a referee was made and I took on the role of referee supervisor and instructor in a matter of days.  It was a big learning curve getting to grips with the challenges and the role, not least in a foreign country without my family and friends.  It was a great experience and I’m proud to still be in touch with the programme in the UAE and with Yahya who I worked closely with and trained to take over the programme and drive it forward.  He is doing a fantastic job.

New IHUK Referee Section Management Team at the National Conference

In 2016 I returned to the UK and have since been involved in establishing a referee programme for the UK officials, taking on the role of Referee Chief for Ice Hockey UK in 2017.  We have restructured the whole programme and put in place a development plan and a management team to deliver it and work with the officials.

To say a lot has happened since Sochi 2014 is an understatement … whilst my time on the ice as an official is done, this is just the beginning of the next stage of the officiating journey for me …

Working as an IIHF Referee Supervisor

In 2015 the IIHF appointed me as a Trainee Referee Supervisor.  Across the world there are roughly 30 IIHF Referee Supervisors and so the invite to train to be a member of this group was an honour and a privilege. 

In the same way that the IIHF assigns officials from around the world to tournaments, they also assign supervisors from around the world to tournaments.  The supervisor is tasked with running the team of referees for the event.  This role ranges across the logistics of working with the tournament organising committee to coordinating travel to and from the hotel to the ice rink for the officials, running team meetings and ensuring the officials have food and whatever else they need.  Outside of the logistics, the role involves running a pre-event rule information meeting for team coaches, assigning officials for games, reviewing the performance of officials on the games, making video clips for learning points for the officials, being the video goal judge, measuring goaltender equipment, answering questions from coaches and team managers regarding on ice rules and situations, and completing evaluation forms and paperwork on the officials to be sent back to the IIHF office for review.

In St Catharine's, Canada as a trainee supervisor in Jan 2016

I thought there was pressure and stress as an official on the ice for IIHF tournaments.  I always used to look at our supervisors and think they had a cushy job travelling the world and watching games.  Having made the switch, I know now that as a supervisor at an IIHF tournament, the days are long, the paperwork is never ending, and the officials depend on us to be there for them. 

The demands of the role are high. 

Everyone wants to talk to you about their concerns, you have to manage the emotions of the officials when you give them honest feedback, and you are accountable for what happens on the ice even though you are not on the ice!  In some cases, I have been supervising officials who I have officiated with and I have had to navigate how to go from being one of the team to running the team and making decisions about the games they should be assigned to. 

It is tough job. 

Often when I get home from an IIHF tournament I need to sleep for a week.  But I wouldn’t change this life and I am giving everything I have to the role of supervising.

My expectations for the next few weeks

I stepped off the ice after the last Olympics with mixed emotions.  I miss being on the ice dearly and some days when I sit in ice rinks and watch officials and games, I’m not really sure I made the right choice.  But deep down when I really ask myself if I made the right decision, I know it was the right time for me to take on a new challenge and that new challenge had to be off the ice and supporting others.  With the experience I had gained, I could be of more value to the officiating programme overall by being off the ice.  My new challenge was to inspire and help others to achieve their goals and to ensure an officiating programme was in place to support them with that.

Being selected by the IIHF as a Referee Supervisor for the Olympics is an honour and a privilege.  I’ll be working alongside some fantastic supervisors and friends; people who I look up to, and who have a wealth of experience in terms of building officiating programmes and supervising officials.  I’ll be supervising and supporting the best officials in the world and helping them realise their dreams and goals.

For me, it is also an opportunity to contribute and to really start realising that however much I miss being on the ice, my new role gives me an opportunity to help others be successful and live out their dreams – being a part of that is the real honour – and I need to get it right for myself and more importantly for the officials depending on me.

The next few weeks will be physically, mentally and emotionally exhausting!  I absolutely cannot wait for it to start.