Dennis Olafson has been officiating track meets for 43 years, something he got into after competing in the high jump. He just finished working the Oregon State High School Championships at Hayward Field. Now he is turning his attention to the Prefontaine Classic, where he will be working as the field event referee.
He spoke with the Emerald about his role, the time he’s spent officiating the meet and what he enjoys most about the meet.
What are your duties going to be during the Pre Classic?
What a referee does for track and field is really adjudicate. They take care of disputes and rule interpretations — that is their main duty. If officials have a problem, coach has a problem, whatever. It usually goes to me for field events. The Prefontaine is pretty well-run. They are high-level athletes that have been around quite a while. They don’t really have too many problems.
What is a common dispute?
It’s more how things are run and operated. Helping athletes understand how we do things at Hayward Field — which may be different from how they do them in Italy or France or places like that.
Sounds like the Prefontaine goes pretty smoothly for you.
I have other duties as well. I am in charge of all of the officials and a number of the volunteers. So I put together, with help from each head official, the crews that work the Prefontaine. So I do double duty there.
Pretty busy two days for you.
During the state meet, I don’t plan much; I may spend a few hours helping to plan, and then I work the meet. For the Prefontaine, it starts — I probably had my first meeting with Tom Jordan last fall. We don’t meet too often, but I do spend a number of hours planning and then I take care of all the correspondence with officials. So that does take more time, and it’s a different type of work than being the meet referee.
How long have you been a part of the Prefontaine?
I was the head high jump official at the first meet. The development of the meet was called the Bill Bowerman Classic, but Prefontaine died before the meet, so Bill Bowerman requested the name change to the Prefontaine Classic.
Does it mean something to you to be officiating a meet in honor of Prefontaine and all the accomplishments he had?
Yeah, it does. I’m not sure how to describe it. Just being a part of the track legacy that has developed over the years at the University of Oregon. It really started with Bill Bowerman — actually Bill Hayward, who was the coach before Bowerman. They started developing track athletes and it has just grown and grown, and continues to grow.
Such a great fan base, so much history, must be special to be a part of that.
I was talking to a couple of people yesterday. I’ve been around it so much that it’s home to me, so it’s normal. But as I watch people coming in from other areas, whether it be the high school kids, athletes from other parts of the country or even other parts of the world like the World Juniors, I get to see in their eyes how special it is. That really makes it enjoyable and pleasurable.
How much longer do you plan to officiate?
I don’t know when I’ll end it, sometimes I’ve thought about it. Keep getting pulled back in because I enjoy the people. At different meets I run into different friends. This last week I saw numerous friends that I only see once a year at the state meet, and probably a number of whom I have known for 40 years or more.
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For a full schedule of events, visit the Pre Classic webpage.