A silk’s story: what it’s like to experience and officiate at the Paris 2024 Olympics

This article recounts the author’s personal experience of helping officiate at the rugby sevens competition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. It will be of particular interest to rugby enthusiasts, and sports lawyers working on disciplinary cases and judicial panels.

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This year World Rugby announced^[1] my reappointment as independent Judicial Panel Chair to 2027. One of the privileges of that role is the opportunity to work at and be embedded in international rugby tournaments. Rugby World Cups (RWC), rugby sevens tournaments and now the Olympic Games. The chance to work at and inside such global sporting tournaments is one open to few.

The Olympic Games first made an impression on the author in 1980. For all manner of reasons, Daley Thompson was (and remains) my favourite athlete in any sport. Watching the recent BBC documentary about him confirmed all that I had admired as a child: his own man, with confidence born of talent, dedication and preparation and the best. But it was Sebastian Coe not beating Steve Ovett in 800m and his reaction in the 1500m that resonated with me. Forty-four years later Lord Coe and I are guests at same event in Paris. He is about my height, but with a different build and time has been kinder. He looks like he could still run a decent 800m; I’d need an Uber. I am working at the Olympic Games.