If there is one thing that has been consistent about my four Olympic experiences (Vancouver - 2010; Pyeongchang - 2018; Beijing - 2022; Milano-Cortina - 2026), it has been the fact that each and every one of them was at least somewhat unique in its own way.
In a sense, that has been the takeaway from my first ten days in Italy, the very notion that for as much as familiarity with this environment is an incredible bonus, there is also great value in being equipped with the adaptability needed when the truth is that every set of Games will throw you a curveball or two (or ten!).
In terms of my role with international hockey, there has been something of a metamorphosis over the course of 16 years. Where the role of scorekeeper was still grounded in the need for a paper-based original scoresheet when Sidney Crosby scored that magical goal, my penmanship which has always been a great source of pride was completely irrelevant some eight years later.
Thankfully, the confluence of good luck and a skill-set that was unexpectedly unearthed (the ability to emerge as a high level assist spotter from the penalty box) had created a niche within the IIHF family that was tapped into as the Olympics made their way to an Asian home where hockey was all but non-existent eight years thereafter.
(for the record, I will always maintain that the assist spotting is merely part and parcel of a very intense game focus - especially in settings such as these - that allows a scorekeeper to become a critical ally to on-ice officials via an ultra-keen awareness of all that is happening on the ice)
But where all of the above had been blended nicely into a key position next to the IIHF Orion input operator at ice level coming out of my time in Gangneung (site of the hockey venue in 2018), the seat did not exist when I was first approached for Milan, the indications being that I was jumping into a more supervisory role, an “all-arounder” as my direct supervisor liked to say.
Lo and behold, the good fortune that landed me at MH2 (Milano Hockey Venue 2 - RHO Arena), site of the majority of women’s play, also reunited me with Results Manager Heli Rissanen, who quickly amended the original game plan, reinserting me into a role in which I am completely at ease (not to mention a role that apparently garnered a fair bit of TV air time during the Canada - Switzerland match as a rare malfunction of the clock - not human error - which made for a longer referee presence at the box than would typically be the case).
But it is not just the chance to work with Heli again that has made these ten days to date so incredible. More than at any other Games I have worked, I have become part of a very close four-person unit that have spent almost all of our time together, largely due to pragmatics as we share one car and are all housed at the same hotel.
While we are all IIHF selected off-ice officials, it is under the Omega Swiss Timing banner that we are accredited in Milan - hence the head to toe red outfitting that is my daily wardrobe whenever I make my way to the exhibition centre turned arena.
While I had the pleasure of working alongside Slovakian Dominika Trnavska in Korea, countrymate Stanislav Kusnirik and Dariusz Pobozniak (Poland) have been wonderful additions to our four-person mini-group that will always remain as a lasting takeaway from the 2026 Games.
It is perhaps only fitting that I should find myself in the very country from which “carpe diem” first emanated, courtesy of the Roman poet Horace. Dating back to the gold medal game in Vancouver, sitting next to my dear friend Todd Guthrie (so wish you were here!) and the reminder to ourselves to take it all in, the mindset is every bit as relevant as I move to within one set of Games to completing the five-ring Olympic symbol.
It was a little under four hours before Opening Ceremonies that word came that tickets had been secured in our favour by the IIHF, a most unexpected surprise. And Milan, most certainly, has all that Milan has to offer, with time spent in the area of the Duomo particularly memorable.
But the specialness of the Games will always lie, in my mind anyways, with the people, an ever-expanding group of contacts across the globe that share laughs and help dissipate the stress.
It’s a collection of familiar faces (Constance from Belarus, a former Venue Manager of mine now working for Deloitte in IIHF IT audit; Blair Landry, the Canadian who was central to both the Vancouver gold medal game selection and the ensuing trip to Pyeongchang; Paw Fonnesbech Anderson, my unforgettable and much younger co-worker from Denmark who surprised me at these Games with a Sebastien Dahm autographed puck from the 2025 World Championships) and many new friends made along the way.
It is the blending of the old and the new in our crew, in my role, even in the city of Milan, that is the lasting legacy, for me, of Milano-Cortina 2026 - one for which I will be forever grateful, whether we all come together in 2030 in the French Alps or not.
