Hockey referee from Pretoria on her way to Olympics
Chances are good that Michelle Joubert of Pretoria could act as referee in the women's hockey final at this year's Olympic Games.
Michelle Joubert is already dreaming of the day when she can toss the coin with the two captains in the women’s hockey final at this year’s Olympics.
And that dream is not that far-fetched given this experienced official from Pretoria was named the world’s top women’s hockey referee last year.
For a few years Joubert has been considered one of the world’s top hockey referees. She is one of only 12 on the World Panel handling top international hockey competitions around the world. In Rio, she will be making her second appearance at the Olympic Games, after refereeing in London in 2012.
Joubert has grown in stature as a referee since, and because South Africa did not qualify for the Olympics, her chances of officiating in the final are extremely good.
“Of course it all depends on whether I do well enough during the course of the tournament. You are judged on your performance in the tournament, so if I do well early, I should have a chance,” she told Rekord.
Joubert’s refereeing career started by coincidence about 15 years ago, when the referee failed to show up for the game and she had to step in.
“John Wright [former president of the Northerns Hockey and international referee] called me over and handed the whistle to me with the request to go and act as referee. I was not trained and did not know all the rules. I really did poorly in that game and I had promised myself never to try it again…”
John, however, saw enormous potential in her and he persuaded her to hold on and to master the rules properly. Soon thereafter, her days as a player were basically over. Then, she was still a provincial player in the Northerns side, but since only played at club level until 2010.
A few months after being thrown in the deep end, Joubert refereed in an U21 tournament in Durban. A year later, she was sent to Kenya to referee the All Africa Military Games. She returned to Kenya shortly afterwards for an Olympic qualifying tournament before being elevated to international referee level.
By 2009, after six years as an international referee, she was named on the senior panel to referee the Junior World Cup in the US.
Since then she’s officiated in the Commonwealth Games in India, and the Women’s World Cup in Argentina in in 2010. But after her brilliant performances at the London Olympics, she handled the final in the Women’s World Cup in Holland in 2014, the World League final in 2015 in Argentina and the World Championships Trophy in London earlier this year.
Joubert has already won many awards for her outstanding refereeing.
In the World League, Joubert refereed her 100th senior international game in the year, for which she was awarded a golden whistle.
She has also been nominated for Africa’s women Referee of the Year award five times.
At the Gauteng Sports Awards she won Official of the Year but her greatest honour was being named Women Referee of the Year for 2015 by the International Hockey Federation.
When not in the middle in a game somewhere in the world, Joubert gets to live her other passion as director of hockey at the Southdowns College in Centurion.
With her background in sport science she tries to develop her pupils in a holistic manner, not only as sportsmen and hockey players, but also as human beings.
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