August 7, 2008
UW at the Olympics: Social work practicum coordinator to referee tae kwon do
Leon Preston has been an athlete all his life, but he’s going to the Olympics this year as an official, not a competitor. He’ll be a referee in tae kwon do, the martial art he’s been practicing for more than 35 years.
Preston, who is a practicum coordinator for the School of Social Work (his alma mater), took up tae kwon do almost by accident, back in junior high school. He gave a friend a ride on his bike to the friend’s tae kwon do class, then looked in the window as the class practiced.
“I didn’t have the money to pay for the class and I was afraid to ask my parents for it,” Preston said.
But he kept going back and looking in the window. Finally the teacher invited him inside, telling him he could help out around the school in exchange for the classes.
“I was a typical American kid playing football, baseball and basketball and running track,” Preston said. “I didn’t have a lot of time for tae kwon do, but I kept going back to it because I enjoyed the challenge of learning something different from anything else I was doing.”
Tae kwon do originated in Korea. The words literally translate as “the way of the fist and foot.” In a tae kwon do match, competitors spar, moving in patterns, faking and blocking as they try to punch and kick each other. Competitors wear protective gear on their heads and bodies, and are not allowed to strike an opponent below the waist, nor to punch the opponent’s head. In a match, there are three rounds of two minutes each, with one-minute rests in between. Competitors win points based on the punches and kicks they land.
Preston competed some through high school, college and graduate school, but then he made a decision. “I thought, I played sports and I like it, but I don’t know that I want to commit myself to the level of training it takes to compete on that international level,” he said. “What I can do, though, I can become involved in another side of the sport by officiating. So that’s when I committed myself to becoming a referee.”
Easier said than done. It took Preston nine years to qualify as an international judge — a typical time span, he said. Aspirants begin officiating at the local level. From there they earn points by refereeing so many matches a year. They go to seminars and take exams and move up the ranks. When they reach the national level they have to be recommended to attend an international referee seminar. Then there are a number of levels of international work.
“I became an international referee in 1989,” Preston said. “I’ve worked my way now from the lowest level up to the highest level. I’m one of the most senior international referees in the world.”
In that capacity he’s worked a number of competitions, including the Pan American Championships, the World Championships and the World Cup, but this is his first Olympics.
Getting there was another arduous process, starting with a call put out by the World Tae Kwon Do Federation a year ago, asking for applicants to attend a two- to three-week training camp in Seoul, Korea. Preston was among 300 international referees invited to come. There, the referees were given physical tests, tests on the rules, tests on hand gestures, tests on scoring. And in the end, 179 were selected to work at the World Championships. From that group 59 were chosen for the World Olympic Qualifying Championship, and 29 also worked at Olympic Regional Qualifying events.
“At each one of the events we worked, we were evaluated by a panel of five judges from around the world,” Preston said. “They watched every single match we did, and believe me, if you made a mistake, it was noted.”
He was among 29 referees who were finally selected to work at the Olympics.
Referees, Preston explained, manage a tae kwon do match. They call violations, score points, watch out for competitors’ safety and make sure competitors fight within the competition rules.
“Refereeing is one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done,” Preston said. “You’re in an arena where most people don’t agree with what you do. One side loves the call, the other side hates it. Then there are the spectators, who have their own opinions. But it’s OK because you have the opportunity to establish a fair and impartial environment where athletes can compete at their maximum potential. That’s what I like about it. That’s all athletes ask for. Make sure the arena is fair and we’ll do the rest.”
There are four days of tae kwon do matches at the Olympics, after which Preston will stay on for a while to do some training at a Beijing sports school and some lecturing on sports psychology at area universities. In addition to the refereeing itself, he’s looking forward to meeting people from different cultures who are proficient in tae kwon do.
“It keeps me up on the techniques being practiced on a very high level so I can incorporate those and bring them back to my students,” he said.
Those would be the students he teaches for free in Seattle’s Central District. Most of them are kids from struggling families, he said, and he tries to impart life lessons along with the tae kwon do.
And in spite of all the international refereeing he’s already done, the Olympics are special to him. “It’s the highest you can go, the most prestigious place you can be,” he said. “I’m very excited about going. I like to be in those kinds of situations where I’m challenged to perform at my best.”
