It's never easy throwing the rule book at a swim racer.
It is, without question, the least favourite part of Larry Chrobot's job.
He could be the bearer of bad news when a swimmer has his backstroke race results wiped out because he made one too many dolphin kicks off the wall. Or he could be forced to tell a relay team of girls from his home club they are disqualified because they jumped into the pool to celebrate a Canada Cup gold medal after the race was over.
And if there's ever any doubt, the rule book is always in his back pocket.
As a Level 5 referee, Chrobot has worked his way up the ladder to become one of the best in the country at making sure the rules are followed in swim meets and he was back at the helm Sunday at the Aquatic Centre as meet manager for the Prince George Barracudas Medical Moose Meet.
"I'm the last guy to save the swimmer, I don't want to disqualify a swimmer - no referee does - but what we want referees to do is call stuff that's correct so that it teaches the swimmer and it doesn't happen at the highest level," said Chrobot. "You'd rather it happen in Prince George than at the Olympics."
Selected last September as Swim BC's official of the year, Chrobot began volunteering as a swim parent at Barracudas club meets in 1999 when someone handed him a stopwatch to time his son Andrew in a time trial. Andrew thrived in the pool and stuck with it long enough to earn medals at age group national championships and Larry went along for the ride, following his son and later his daughters, Kathryn and Lauren, to out-of-town meets.
As Andrew climbed the ranks, so did Larry, who attended officials clinics and built up his resume to advance to higher levels as a referee. With each level of advancement came an evaluation and Chrobot has gotten used to sweating out the pressure of having people watch his every move on the pool deck while putting his experience to work in race situations. For Chrobot, it's no different than a swimmer trying to please a coach by putting theory into practice to reach the desired results.
"I've been fortunate enough, I've just been sticking with it, and one of the things you learn about swim officials is it's very good community because we're all volunteers," said Chrobot. "Nobody gets paid to be here, which is different from a lot of sports."
Chrobot's track record over 16 years at swim meets has earned him invitations to officiate at provincial, western, age group national and senior national championships and he's taken part in Pan-Pacific, Commonwealth and Olympic team trials. Earlier this month he took part in the Pan Am Games trials in Toronto.
"It was a great experience because you're surrounded with the best officials in Canada with the best swimmers in Canada," said Chrobot. "As we go and travel you start knowing things and that's very comforting as an official because you know their level. You don't worry about things because you know they are going to do their jobs well.
"In Prince George, we run some of the best meets in the province. We have lots of volunteers and lots of officials and they're keen and they're going to other meets and offering their time, which is what I did, and it's growing the officiating."
Chrobot conducts officials courses in the city to train people who have a choice of 12 different volunteer job descriptions for club meets, and that involves countless hours of preparation time.
"I love working with the coaches, there's a lot of problem-solving and coming up with good ideas when something isn't right," said Chrobot. "My favorite part of a meet is the first day because that's when the problems start. You're trying to work out the volunteers and trying to work out the (timing) electronics and it puts you under pressure and I enjoy that."
Chrobot, 47, a former forester, works full-time as CEO of Applied Informatics for Health Society, a medical software organization in Prince George. He also serves as a director for Swim BC. He travels to meets regularly throughout the season from October to July and last year used 17 days of his holiday time and 12 weekend days so he could officiate at competitions. To make that possible, Chrobot says his wife Carolyn backs his swimming pursuits every step of the way.
As a Level 5 master official, Chrobot is also certified as a Level 1 para official and has his Level 1 and 2 open water official qualifications. But he says there's still a lot to learn and he will continue to work his way up through the ranks in FINA (Federation Internationale De Natation) to eventually qualify as an international official.
