One of the requests for content on this blog was information about the other officials involved in the Games. An important point to make here is that there are not just referees involved in officiating a game of wheelchair basketball. In Tokyo, there will be referees, game commissioners, table officials, classifiers, statisticians, referee supervisors and technical delegates. All of these roles join together to make each game run as smoothly as possible - the third team involved in each match (that the title of this blog alludes to).
For events such as the Paralympic Games and World Championships, the referees, table officials, game commissioners, classifiers, technical delegates and referee supervisors are all appointed by the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) and are referred to as International Technical Officials (ITOs). The local team of tournament organisers appoint the table officials and statisticians from the organising national federation and are referred to as National Technical Officials (NTOs).
Here is the background of all the ITOs appointed to Tokyo 2020 by the IWBF.
I will always remember the conversation I had with my supervisor when I qualified as an international referee in 2013. Instead of saying 'Congratulations, you have successfully passed your examination' or something similar, I was given a firm handshake, a warm embrace and the comment 'Welcome to the family!' Family is the certainly the best way to describe the feeling of collective belonging when working as an IWBF official.
We support each other.
We challenge each other.
We trust each other.
We make some amazing memories together.
We may not see each other for years in between tournaments, but when we meet it is like we've never been apart. Tokyo is no different and it has brought me comfort knowing that even though the world is still a crazy place, my basketball family is just as they were. Being able to reminisce about experiences from previous events, discuss games we worked together or sightseeing trips we took are all things that are personal to us - the basketball family. They are conversations and experiences that are specific to our group and that others might not fully appreciate or understand.
I have worked with 29 of the ITOs at these Games, many of which at multiple events. This provides an extremely strong basis for successful teamwork during games, but also offers exciting prospects for making new friendships with those I have not worked with before. Many of the other ITOs will be in the same position in having a group of officials they know and some that they don't.
It is this aspect of officiating which I really value. How many jobs / vocations / hobbies offer the participant the opportunity to say 'I know people that live in Argentina, Costa Rica, Brazil, USA, Canada, Malaysia, Australia, Poland, South Africa etc' AND get to meet up with them on a reasonably frequent basis, or have the open offer of meeting up should you ever find yourself in their home country? Making these friendships and relationships is so important - we only have a limited amount of time together at events (and even less in these Games due to Covid protocols) so making the most of it is vital.
A personal example of how my basketball family rallied round me in a time of need was when my dad died from Covid-19 in November 2020. The number of emails, text messages, sympathetic GIFs or other forms of communication were overwhelming and I was extremely grateful that any of them took a moment in their day to let me know they were thinking of me.
To come to Tokyo 2020, I have left my own family behind for 17 days. To say it is a hard thing to do is an understatement, but knowing that I am going from my own family to my basketball family makes it a little easier and the advances in technology, especially during the pandemic, have guaranteed that communication from Japan to the UK is much more straightforward. (Although the time difference is still confusing my children - seeing their confused faces as I go to bed whilst they eat lunch is hilarious!)
Now the actual matches have started, it is time to support each other by watching them on the live feeds, praise each other for matches well officiated and picking each other up if we feel like our performances weren’t as strong as we’d have hoped for. We are all putting ourselves under a global microscope, and I’m sure we’ll all need an encouraging smile or a supportive fist bump at some point along the way.
But isn’t that what family is for?
No comments:
Post a Comment