Emotions running high as women's ice hockey tournament comes to an end ...

As the final few days of the Olympics was approaching, the women’s ice hockey tournament was also coming to an end.  The culmination of four years hard work was upon us and emotions were running high for everyone involved.

United Korea score their first goal

A moment that will stay with me forever is sitting in the arena when the Korean Women’s team scored their first goal at the Olympics.  The crowd erupted, and the building was filled with excitement.  The crowd have been unwavering in their support for the Korean team.  The team have been down by several goals, but by watching the level of support from the crowd you would never know.  The home crowd have been cheering them on relentlessly.  To the local crowd, the team are superstars and winners regardless of the on-ice score.  The goal was significant not just because it was the first goal scored by the Korean women’s ice hockey team at an Olympics … but because of what it represented and the composition of the team who scored it.  This is a united Korean team – a team which puts North Koreans and South Koreans standing shoulder to shoulder.  No-one knows what this may mean for the future politics of the countries, but the goal symbolised the potential success which could be achieved through unification.  This unified Korean team epitomises the power of sport to unite.  The expectation of the team was never to win.  However, the work ethic and camaraderie demonstrated by the team showed the world what is possible with a little bit of will.  We don’t know if this is a defining moment or not for politics, but for me I am grateful to have witnessed it live and know that the feeling of being in the building when the team scored will stay with me for the rest of my life. 

South Korean Crowds at the Hockey Games

 

Much of the media attention and focus around the Olympics has been on the North Korean Cheerleaders and their beautifully choreographed routines which are executed with unimaginable precision.  I have to admit to being mesmerised and caught up in their appearances at the ice hockey arena.  However, amidst all of the fuss about the North Korean Cheerleaders, the real stars of the show are being over-looked.

 

The South Korean crowds for the women’s ice hockey games have been amazing.  They have turned up in their thousands and cheered and chanted the whole game long.  They also couldn’t be more different from the North Korean cheer-leaders if they tried.  In stark contrast to the rigid and structured routines of the North Korean cheerleaders, the South Korean fans cheer and wave their flags to a routine, but there is a sense of chaos and emotion throughout their cheering.  Sitting among them it is tough not to get caught up in the chaotic explosion of fun.  They wave their flags with the same intensity as the North Korean cheerleaders but not perfectly in time and with individual character and emotion.  Each block of fans has a cheering instructor who jumps up periodically throughout the game to instruct their section how to cheer.  They have set cheers which involve vigorously waving the unified flag backwards and forwards, before lifting the flag up and then pointing to the ice.  It is as if the flag is a magic wand and they are building energy up from the ground to then transfer and throw onto the ice to help the team score.  It is fun to watch, and you almost feel compelled to cheer along with them.

In between periods they have crowd entertainment and dancing competitions where they encourage the crowd to get involved.  The dance camera picks out people and the best dancers get a prize.  Everyone gets involved with this and I have now seen more people dancing to Gangnam style than I ever thought possible!

Gold Medal Game

There will of course already have been many reports and articles on the women’s gold medal game.  I certainly don’t need to add to these, but it would be remiss of me not to mention what is now being described as the greatest game of women’s ice hockey ever played.  The two power houses of women’s hockey, USA and Canada, have dominated women’s hockey for a good number of years.  These two teams have met in the gold medal game in all but one Olympics since women’s hockey was introduced to the Olympics in 1998 in Nagano.  The one exception to them meeting in the gold medal game, was in 2006, in Torino, when USA lost to Sweden in the Semi-Final game which went to over-time and was decided on a shoot-out.  Canada have won gold for the last three Olympics despite USA winning a number of World Championships in-between Olympic years.  The teams are evenly matched and when they come together it always promises to be an entertaining game of hockey and a closely fought battle.  The gold medal game at the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympics did not disappoint.  The game went into over-time and was decided on a shoot-out.  USA finally ended their Olympic gold medal drought and were crowned gold medallist and Olympic champions.   The story making the news is of one of the Canadian player’s taking off her silver medal almost as soon as it was placed on her.  Regardless of your view on this, it does demonstrate the emotions of competing at an Olympics and the pain of not achieving your dream and your goal.  For her – coming second is not good enough.

As I mentioned in a previous blog, these emotions are felt by everyone involved in the Olympics.  We have 19 officials and only 4 of them can work the gold medal game.  Selecting the officials for the gold medal game was not an easy task.  Some officials get to live their dream and others are left devastated and feeling like they came up short of the expectation they set for themselves.  As a supervisor, the only thing you can hope for is that the officiating team is strong enough for the individuals within it to manage their personal disappointment without letting it affect the team spirit.  At the end of the game, as a supervisor team we went down to the changing room to see the officials who just finished their gold medal game.  As we approached the officials changing room I was humbled to see the door to the room was open and all of the other officials were already there hugging and congratulating their colleagues on the game.  This doesn’t happen at every tournament and it is really tough.  Essentially the 4 officials who worked the game are the envy of the officiating team and so it is tough for each official to put that feeling to one side and give them support and praise.  I was really proud of the team for doing this and for putting the team above their own individual feelings. 

Women's gold medal puck

Danny (our Officiating Manager from the IIHF) came to the changing room and handed out to each of the officials on the game a gold medal game puck.  For the gold medal game, they make a limited amount of specific gold medal game pucks.  They are even rarer than the regular Olympic pucks and have a yellow/gold logo instead of the pink/blue logo.  The pucks being used for the men’s tournament have a blue logo on as opposed to the pink logo pucks being used for the women’s tournament.  Printed on the yellow logo puck is “women’s gold medal game puck”.  It is nice for the officials who worked the game to have a gold medal game puck – they certainly earned the right to have one.  Before anyone sends me a message to ask me for one of these gold medal game pucks I should probably point out that Choi was not on duty at the arena but that his colleague was as committed to his role of guarding the pucks.  There is no chance I can get one for you.  The puck used for every goal scored in the gold medal game is sent to the hockey hall of fame in Toronto and as before the pucks are counted in and out because they are in very limited supply with a small amount printed only for this one game.  If you want a gold medal game puck then you have to officiate the gold medal game at an Olympics and be presented with it.  For the rest of us a picture is as close as we will get.

Individual Meetings with the Officials

At the end of any IIHF tournament, the referee supervisors schedule individual meetings with each official.  This is a chance to give individual feedback to the official on their performance throughout the tournament and for the official to ask any questions or raise any concerns they have.  As an official, I always enjoyed these meetings but found them emotional.  Working as a referee at an IIHF tournament is a lot of fun but can also be stressful.  As an individual, you put pressure and expectation on yourself, and maybe you didn’t live up to it, or you felt you did but you didn’t get the games you wanted and so know that the supervisors don’t agree with your assessment of your own performance.  Having the opportunity to speak about your views and ask questions is good, but also emotional.  Alternatively, maybe you achieved your goal and the release of pressure and satisfaction can also be emotional when you talk about it.  I’ve sat in enough individual meetings as a referee to know that they are important meetings for the officials. 

As a supervisor team we have 19 individual meetings to do.  They are short meetings – just 5-10 minutes but this mounts up to about 2 ½ hours of back to back emotional meetings.  For me this is probably the most emotional 2 ½ hours of the tournament.  Some of the officials are quick and don’t want to talk too much, and others have more questions and want to open up more.  We ask each of the officials’ similar questions, “How was the tournament for you?”, “What did you enjoy most about your Olympic experience?”, “What is next for you, and what are your plans for the next couple of years?”, “Have you set a new goal now you have achieved your goal of officiating at an Olympics?”.  The release of pressure at the end of the tournament, results in tears of disappointment or tears of happiness for most of the officials.  We share the emotions with each and every official as their support team, their mentors and their friends. 

Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Women's Officiating Team

Our goal is for every official to leave with a good feeling about what they achieved over the last few weeks and to have answers to their questions about their performance and the games they got/didn’t get.  This group of officials are at the top of their game – they are the best of the best.  They are driven and passionate about being successful.  It was the most emotional set of individual meetings I have been part of as a supervisor.  Each and every official let down their guard for long enough to share with us their personal emotions about the last few weeks.  Some are happy and emotional that it has to come to an end, others are happy to have experienced it but emotional about not achieving their personal goal.  Ultimately our message to all the officials is - it is tough at the top, but that they are in the top 19 officials in the world and have to be pleased about that in itself. 

What is clear from the meetings is that after an emotional and amazing few weeks here, it is time to go home and be with family and friends.  Living the dream is amazing but all dreams come to an end.  At some point during the Olympic dream everyone starts to feel that they want to be home and with the people who have supported them to live their dream.  We have all reached this point and it is time to go home.