Dodging metal spears thrown by the nation’s finest in a grass field is a common occurrence for Eugene local Vicki Parker.@@https://www.facebook.com/vicki.parker.923@@
Seven years ago, Parker was just another typical Eugene track fanatic. She’d attend the Prefontaine Classic@@http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?event_id=120@@ every year, cheer on the local elite runners, embrace herself within the wonders of Hayward Field and occasionally daydream of being an elite runner.
“Everyone wishes they could be a professional athlete,” Parker said.
Parker has a 19-year-old daughter, Rachel Parker, that was on a local track club when she was in grade school. The local track club asked the parents to volunteer and help run different events at the Junior National Championships when it was at Hayward Field in 2004. While volunteering at the meet, she had a conversation with an unknown USATF official about officiating track meets. A conversation with said official would become the reason she started officiating.
“He told me how he got into officiating and I just thought it sounded cool,” Parker said. “I ran track track in high school, so I’ve always liked track and getting to be out there was part of it too.”
After seven years of officiating, Parker is now an USA Track and Field National Level-credited official, and will help run nine different events throughout the Olympic Trials.
Parker will start off her week of officiating women’s pole vault on June 22. Parker is mostly assigned to help run javelin but will also be the lap counter for both the men’s and women’s steeplechase and the 5000 meter run.
“I’m working every day but my main event is javelin,” Parker said.
Parker will be one of the seven officials running javelin. Her favorite job when officiating javelin is being one of the two markers, a person that is standing out in the field marking exactly where the javelin impaled the ground. Being out in the field dodging a javelin can be quite dangerous.
“Sometimes when it’s really windy, there’s a crosswind that moves the javelin and you can’t judge where it’s going to go,” Parker said. “I’ve seen people have to dive out of the way, and I’ve seen people get hit with a discus.”
To be an official at the Olympic Trials, Parker had to submit a resume to USATF and be chosen by their selection committee. This committee is tasked with picking the nation’s best officials for the Olympic Trials. This was Parker’s second time applying to work at the Olympic Trials.
“I applied in 2008 and was only chosen as an alternate,” Parker said.
This time around, Parker is assigned to work an event every day of competition during the trials. Frequent Hayward attendee and family friend of the Parkers, Nora Wilson,@@http://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/Athlete.aspx?AID=251455@@ enjoys seeing someone she knows on the field among all the athletes.
“I can always count on seeing Vicki at the meets,” Wilson said. “I can recognize her a mile away because she’s been at so many meets.”
For Parker, officiating isn’t a day job. Like many officials, she has a job outside of her track and field life. Parker is a Claims Administrator at KPD Insurance Inc.@@http://www.linkedin.com/pub/vicki-parker/b/199/4a6@@ Parker’s love for track and field and the opportunity of being a part of out there on the field keeps her returning every year to officiate.
“The other day at the Prefontaine Classic when we were getting our throwers ready to go onto the field, back by the warm up area, I was just standing there watching all these elite athletes warming up, walking around with their coaches; it was pretty amazing,” Parker said. “To think I was just standing right there with them. And I was watching the Blade Runner (Oscar Pistorius), and it was just like ‘wow I can’t believe I was just standing five feet away from him warming up.’ That day when I was waiting I was like ‘wow this is pretty crazy.’”