Weyburn linesperson one of two Sask. officials named to Olympic tournament

Alex Clarke is taking her officiating talents to Beijing.

The Weyburn product was named one of the linespeople for the Olympic women’s hockey tournament, which is to take place during the Winter Games in China.

Cienna Lieffers is another Saskatchewan-born official who has been named to work at the tournament.

“It’s a big relief because I’ve been working so hard for it for so long and it’s exciting, but (there’s) also so much anxiety with the state of COVID right now,” Clarke said.

While there are concerns over the current political landscape of the world and in China as well as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Clarke didn’t have any second thoughts about what her decision was going to be.

“It was all thought out beforehand. You don’t go overnight thinking you want to go to the Olympics so we had time leading up to it and it was a pretty easy yes when I got the phone call,” Clarke said.

It has been a long journey for Clarke as she has tried to reach her Olympic goals.

Clarke was the first female linesperson in the WHL and AHL.

She said it was quite an experience to get to the AHL.

“It was really incredible,” Clarke said. “At that level, it’s such a different game. It’s full-grown men playing professionally. Some have been in the NHL (and) some are being called up or sent down (from the NHL).

“Just the level of maturity at that age and the strength and speed of those players (and) the ability to make decisions so quickly was so much higher than I’ve been exposed to at this point.”

She’s also no stranger to international play, participating in the women’s world hockey championship.

“It can get tough. It’s not tough transferring back and forth once or twice. It’s tough bouncing from league to league, men’s to women’s hockey, linesing to reffing. That’s where balancing gets difficult because you’re managing different rule books and style of play instead of just the rules,” Clarke said.

“I ref three to five nights of a week and I can go anywhere from an hour away or I could be flying somewhere for a game. I’ve put a lot of miles on.”

Clarke said it’s not as difficult as people may think to communicate on the international scene.

“Part of the requirement for being an IIHF official is you have to speak English. The extent of how well you speak it, it varies but we can all communicate in the English language which really helps us as a team get through what we need to get through,” Clarke said.

“Every team has to have somebody that speaks English. Some teams have one designated person, other teams have it where pretty much everybody speaks some degree (of English). Thankfully as officials, we speak a language of signals which translates to every language.”

She said officials have been having virtual meetings ahead of the tournament so they are all on the same page when it comes to the quality of play.

The Olympics are scheduled to run Feb. 4-20.