During any given day of the Olympic Trials, coordinator Dennis Olafson@@checked@@ is endlessly, frantically busy.
He’s helping athletes and staff make sure they have the right paperwork, patching holes left by late or missing officials, and ensuring that everyone wandering around the events are where they’re supposed to be. Lots of little things – “putting out fires,” he calls it – but they add up to make for a full schedule.
“I couldn’t tell you what went on (Friday). I don’t see meets,” Olafson said, explaining that by the time he’s made his rounds, he generally only has a few minutes to spare before his next project. “(Friday) I got to see the last lap of the men’s 10K, and the last lap of the women’s 10K, and that was it.”
It’s for this very reason that he stepped down from both his previous track positions with the Oregon Track Club and the University of Oregon Track and Field Program. Previously the chairman for the former and an officials coordinator for the latter, he left the positions to focus more on what originally turned him from a student high jump athlete to an athletic official: officiating events.
Nevertheless, when asked to coordinate for the 2012 Olympic Trials, Prefontaine Classic, and Pac-12 Championships, the Portland-based track veteran of 40 years stepped back up to the plate. After all, he pointed out, not many other people are on a familiar, even friendly, basis with nearly as many of the visiting officials he is after four decades. Besides, even though he doesn’t get to see many of the events, he still enjoys his job.
“It’s a lot of work, but it’s very rewarding,” said Olafson. “It’s the probably the camaraderie that I picked up on the most, even with the athletes … I get to work with a lot of enjoyable, easy to get along with people. It makes it all worth it.”