USA RUGBY — USA Rugby referees Cisco Lopez and Kat Roche will make history this July as the first-ever Americans to officiate rugby at the Olympic Games. [lead photo c/o USA Rugby]
World Rugby today announced match officials from across 16 countries for the Paris 2024 Olympics, with SVNS series regulars Lopez and Roche named to the panel. Paris will mark the fifth appearance for rugby at the Olympics dating back to 1920, and both officials will be the first to represent the United States.
The full list of 23 officials were selected following a comprehensive review of performances across the HSBC SVNS 2024 series. The full match official squad for the Olympic Games Paris 2024:
MEN’S TOURNAMENT
Ben Breakspear (Wales, Great Britain)
Paulo Duarte (Portugal)
Gianluca Gnecchi (Italy)
Francisco González (Uruguay)
Nick Hogan (New Zealand)
AJ Jacobs (South Africa)
Reuben Keane (Australia)
Adam Leal (England, Great Britain)
Tevita Rokovereni (Fiji)
Jérémy Rozier (France)
Morné Ferreira (South Africa)
Jordan Way (Australia)
WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT
Finlay Brown (Scotland, Great Britain)
Craig Chan (Hong Kong China)
Talal Chaudhry (Canada)
Maggie Cogger-Orr (New Zealand)
Ano Kuwai (Japan)
Maria Latos (Germany)
Cisco Lopez (USA)
Tyler Miller (Australia)
Lavenia Rawaca (Fiji)
Kat Roche (USA)
George Selwood (England, Great Britain)
“I am very excited to be managing a hugely experienced and talented group of match officials to Paris 2024,” said World Rugby High Performance Sevens Referee Manager Paddy O’Brien. “To have so many countries represented as well as knowing every region is involved gives our management team a huge amount of satisfaction and is testament to the pathways we have had in place over the past four years.
All those selected have worked extremely hard to ensure that when we arrive in Paris, we will have officials able to referee and officiate to the level required for such a special event.”
The men’s competition will take place from July 24-27, kicking off the Olympic Games Paris 2024 along with football two days before the Opening Ceremony, with the women’s competition following from July 28-30.