2) The one with the recap

My return to the UK following Rio2016 still remains a blur to this day. After arriving back home at 9.00pm (having travelled for 28 hours and still on Brazilian time), I was expected back at work for 7.30am the following morning to teach 30 giddy 8 year olds without falling asleep on them! As you can imagine, the excitement of the children combined with lots of adrenalin kept me going!

6 weeks after my return, I had to fly out to Madrid for an IWBF referee refresher clinic to maintain my international licence. We had to do rules tests, fitness tests, seminars and enjoy LOTS of Spanish hospitality. 

I am pleased to say that all officials passed this assessment, ensuring we could all be nominated to games within the next World Championships cycle HOWEVER I was not available for any IWBF games for the 2016/2017 season due to the amount of time off my school had already granted me for Rio and the refresher clinic.  

Referee Refresher Clinic, Madrid

The following season, I made a huge decision. Following a diagnosis of depression and work-related anxiety, I decided to hand in my resignation at work and became a supply teacher whilst looking for a new permanent position. 

You will be well aware of the current high-profile examples of athletes prioritising their mental health over performance. In recent weeks, Naomi Osaka, Simone Biles and Ben Stokes have all announced they are taking time to prioritise their mental health over anything else. I did the same thing - I focused on myself and my family and gave myself an opportunity to throw myself into things I loved. More than 3 years on, I can safely say that decision was one of the best things I have ever done. 

Having the flexibility to choose when I did or didn't work over the first 6 months of 2018, along with counselling and a brief period of medication helped me rediscover who I was, what I wanted in life and what made me happy. We extended our house. We went on an amazing family holiday to Disneyland Paris. My kids got their dad back and my wife got her best friend back, all in the knowledge that I had secured a permanent teaching position at a new school for September 2018. 

Within all of this domestic change, I was also nominated to 3 tournaments. The first event was in Thessaloniki, Greece for Euroleague 3 where I have never experienced such hospitality! My wife and I had our honeymoon in Greece and she was a little jealous that she couldn't travel with me... 

Whenever I go away with basketball, I always try to bring something back for my boys. Thessaloniki is the home of PAOK and I really wanted to get my eldest son a basketball jersey. Unfortunately, the arena was on the other side of the city and the schedule was too tight for me to get over there. I got such a wonderful surprise at the airport though as I was preparing to return home, because the event organiser was waiting for me at check-in. He had made a special trip that morning to drive to the club shop to buy a jersey for my son (along with some other PAOK souvenirs)! 

My second tournament was to make the short journey down the M1 to Sheffield, England who were hosting the Euroleague 2 Finals. This was another well-organised event and as the 'local' referee (meaning I had a British Passport!), I was tasked with being the tour guide around Sheffield for my colleagues and also had the honour of refereeing the Bronze medal game on my birthday. 

The third nomination was to the 2018 World Championships in Hamburg, Germany. Sadly, it was a tournament I never travelled to, since within 48 hours of accepting the nomination I had to withdraw due to my sister-in-law setting the date for her wedding in Poland. I looked at every possibility of travelling between Poland and Germany to find a way of doing both, but it was not to be. 

The 2018/2019 season presented a new first for me - a nomination to the IWBF Europe Champion's League 1/4 Final in Germany. The standard of these games was comparable to full international competition, since the majority of players from all the teams also represented their countries. Qualification for the final rounds cam down to the final few seconds of the very last game - a game I was Commissioner for! The mathematical implications for each team to qualify changed with every basket and it was decided by the final shot of the match. Tense stuff, and I have never seen a team so happy to lose a game (in order to qualify for the finals, they either needed to win the game, or lose by less than 20. They lost by 19!) 

Upon my return from Germany, I was then appointed to the Euroleague 1 Finals in Sheffield, England. Making a return to Sheffield for the second year running, over my birthday weekend once more, I met new colleagues and caught up with old friends and was extremely proud to be nominated to my first ever Gold medal game. This was particularly special for me, because my wife and children travelled to Sheffield on Finals day to watch the Gold medal game - my boys had never seen me referee an IWBF event before and all I could hear them shouting from the stands was "Good call daddy!" It was really sweet! 

I went into the Summer feeling really positive about everything. Family life was amazing. Work was good. Basketball was going well, domestically AND internationally. Following on from really positive assessments from my IWBF games, I allowed myself a little bit of hope that I had done enough to earn a nomination to the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. As the Winter approached, I knew that the nominations would be made in late November / early December (as they were with Rio2016). 

The nomination did come, BUT I NEARLY MISSED IT! The email went straight into my 'Junk' folder since it came from an email account I had never had any communication with before. And it had been sitting there for 3 days! 

I was going from refereeing at the first ever Paralympic Games in South America, to the first time a Paralympic Games would return to a previous host city. In little over 8 months time, I would be flying out to Japan on a new adventure of a lifetime with the added bonus that the Games fell entirely within school holidays! 

Or so I thought... 

But we all know what happened next, don't we? 

1) The one with the introduction...

How the world has changed in the 5 years that have passed since Rio 2016 - the last time I set up an online blog. (Still available at referoo.weebly.com)

The Rio games were the first to be held in South America. They almost didn’t happen due to funding crises, poor early ticket sales, insecure legacy planning and alleged corruption. With 10 days before the opening ceremony, the BBC led with a report saying it was make or break for Rio, followed by reports 48 hours before I was due to fly out that the games were on the verge of being cancelled.

But they happened. Boy, did they happen!

Now here we are, 5 years down the line from the Games that nearly didn’t happen, 1 year on from when Tokyo 2020 was supposed to have happened and 3 weeks away from when I’m due to board a plane bound for Japan. In my Rio blog, my first post concluded with

"As a first-time Paralympic referee, my involvement will end at the conclusion of the group stages and I will return home to my family and regular job. But I will be there. In Rio. At a Paralympic Games. And I can't wait.

But I will have to, for just a little bit longer..."

Apparently, waiting is a key theme with things like this, but the wait will be well worth it! Also, in contrast to Rio, I be officiating for the duration of the tournament which will bring new experiences and challenges along the way.

I have so many things buzzing round in my head prior to leaving. I hope this blog will help provide an insight into my experiences before, during and after the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, as well as providing me with a focus and outlet for the countless hours of Playbook-stipulated isolation I anticipate being under when not officiating.

Check back regularly for updates during the build up and throughout the Games in Tokyo.