Golden Campaign for Helen Roberts

An office under the Eiffel Tower, the best seat in the Stade de France, live access to 48 disciplines, 14 out of 17 athletics sessions completed, all across 11 days and one very important job. We sat down with Helen Roberts, World Athletics Gold Referee to reflect on the magnificent Olympic Games, and gain an insight into how the greatest show on Earth was conducted as a technical official.

Helen was one of three Australian officials who featured on the sport’s biggest stage and rubbed shoulders with track and field’s greatest names at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Some of Helen’s duties and responsibilities included being the women’s marathon referee, managing the drinks station at the 20k walks, a general duty referee, the primary referee on both the individual long jump finals, managing a take over zone for the relays and even on the video side of some events like the shot put and triple jump. Helen was part of a group of 14 World Athletics’ Gold Referees, whom she describes the group ‘as the best of friends’ for 11 jam packed days, and noted it was evident that “Everyone, from athlete to track official, was there to do their best.”

The Olympic Games in Paris was different in a number of ways than previous editions. One example from a practical and organisational view, was the fact that the athletics segment of the games shared the same venue as Rugby, which resulted in less time for the officials to prepare. Helen explained “The whole Games was brilliant, but it did start out with slightly more pressure due to the rugby. As a result, we had the rehearsal just the night before the whole schedule kicked off. When we came down to the track, one of the first thing we questioned was, “why is there a bell in the centre of the track?” We had turned to each other going, how is this going to go? They were able to move the bell from the javelin run up, thankfully, and the joy it elicited, it became an integral part of the whole meet! However, for something we first questioned, we found the bell became an integral part of the games, it was a quintessential element of celebrating victory, and something that was born out of necessity, yet became a great thing.”

So why was the bell there in the first place? The bell is part of a Rugby Sevens tradition and this bell is rumoured to be heading to the restored Notre Dame Cathedral.

Due to the disruption, she “learned it’s really important that we all shared the same vision. At the beginning, we struggled with the first few days as we always felt we were just that one day behind getting set up. However, what it did do for us as a team, and credit must be given to everyone, everyone worked together, it went way better than we originally thought it would with less preparation and everyone just got better and better as the sessions transpired. Everyone sharing the same vision right from the word go, that’s crucial”.

Secondly, World Athletics revealed an innovation for the games by including a repechage round for all individual track events from 200m to 1500m (including hurdles events), in a change to the standard competition format. The repechage rounds were brought in to give more exposure to the sport during the peak Olympic period and was carefully scheduled to ensure that every event on the Olympic programme retained its share of the spotlight. For Helen and her team, this meant the extended programme saw much more sessions (usually 14 changing to 17), and on any given evening rather than three field events taking place, there was just two. Of course, this meant more work, however Helen saw it as another opportunity to do what she loves. “As a technical official, I officiate the event in front of me, the athlete in front of me or the race in front of me, they deserve to have the best conditions that they can have, and that is what I endeavour to give to every one of the performers”.

For Helen, there was one thing that really stood out for her in comparison to Tokyo and that was the noise and of course, crowd control. “It was great to see crowds again, but again that brings its own challenges, because the crowd doesn’t exactly do what you want. I remember one night and I am not normally on the track feed, but I heard the start referee say, to the competition manager, “I need some help please”, and then all of a sudden you hear it on the event presentation and stadium announcer saying “silence please”. It was only because everyone was so enthusiastic!

When I was working on the long jump, I said to the group of jumpers, I would do my best to manage the noise. One of the jumpers in the men’s final said ‘Can I wait?” because there was a French athlete running somewhere on the track and the noise was deafening!

75000 voices shouting, and they are not all track and field aficionados, and sometimes you don’t have a crowd who fully grasp track etiquette.  When I spoke to the long jump girls in the call room, I went ‘when it gets a bit loud, let me know and if there are things I can do to help, I will. But then I had to turn to the French girl and say “I’m sorry, you have no choice, they are cheering for you”, all she could do was laugh!”

She notes that what makes it all even more interesting is the way in which officials communicate, the various cultures, and even though there may be language barriers at times, they find a way. “Officials all around the world, are the same as officials all around the world. They are technical by nature, they want you to tell them what you want them to do, how you want them to do it and then they want to know are they doing a good job and if not, well then how can they improve. As you develop as an official, you become aware that it’s okay that things are done differently around the world, we are all in it together, we all do the same job, some nations may do it slightly differently and no rules will ever be broken, and that’s how we operate, to get the best outcome”.

Helen noticed in comparison to other games that there seemed to be a larger contingent of female technical officials at the event. She said “There was a notable presence of more women officiating, it seemed like a more equitable space and something I think that needs to be celebrated.”

The Paris 2024 Olympic Games has further demonstrated the global reach of athletics, with a record for the most countries winning gold in a single Games having been set. For Helen, there were a number of stand out performances. She was privy to witnessing three world records: Mondo Duplantis (SWE), 6.25m in the pole vault; Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (USA), 50.37 in the 400m hurdles; USA, 3:07.41 in the mixed 4x400m. She also saw 13 Olympic records, 2 Olympic decathlon best performances, 21 area records, 99 national records, and 311 personal bests. “Mondo, he just makes it look so effortless and Sydney, hard work made effortless, it is a spectacle. From an Australian perspective, I had the night off when the women’s high jump final was on so it was great to go and support Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson who both finished on the podium. I also had just finished an evening session and got to go see Nina Kennedy win the pole vault.

The one that I also really enjoyed was Letsile Tebogo from Botswana, I was on the ground and I just went wow, he looked great and I don’t believe anyone was winning that night but him. You could just see; he wanted it and he got it.”

By Lilly-Ann O’Hora
Posted: 19/9/2024