Larry Chrobot has never been to South America but he plans to be there in October sporting the maple leaf.
The 55-year-old from Prince George has been asked to join the ranks of the officials overseeing the swimming events at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile.
Chrobot’s persistence as a competitive swimming official that started 23 years ago as parent volunteer at local swim meets watching his son Andrew race for the Prince George Barracudas Swim Club paved his path to pursue officiating to the highest level.
The Pan Am Games will be his first global event as a rule enforcer.
“I got the call from Swim Canada a few months ago asking to have my name put forward for that and I said sure,” said Chrobot. “All the countries put names forward and then the Pan Am committee goes through and selects the appropriate officials for the event.
“A few weeks ago I got the email from Pan Am to say I’d been selected and that was cool. You never did it as an athlete, so now you’re doing it as an officials. What’s really exciting thing about this is it’s a multisport event, so it’s like the Olympics. There will be like 6,000 athletes, so you get the vibe.”
Chrobot’s goosebump moment came when Swim Canada directed him to a website to have hm fill in his clothing sizes so he could be outfitted with Team Canada gear. He received a box in the mail last week with his Pan Am Games poolside wardrobe and couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride trying it on.
Chrobot’s son Andrew was eight when he first got involved in swimming and he stuck with it well into his late-teen years to become a BC team member. Now 31, he’s best remembered around the Barracuda ranks for breaking Jim Fowlie’s 43-year-old club record in the 400 m individual medley. To get to that stage took hundreds of hours of practice and dozens of club meets at the Prince George Aquatic Centre and his dad Larry soon became a fixture at those meets.
“I’m a volleyball/basketball guy, I didn’t know anything about swimming, “ said Larry. “You can’t sit around and do nothing, so you grab a stopwatch, and eventually you start doing more, and it just keeps going from there.
“Back in the day, when Andrew was progressing along, I jokingly said, ‘you know son, I’ll go as far in officiating and you go in swimming,’ Well I didn’t think he’d keep going,”
Larry kept upgrading his credentials while watching daughters Lauren and Kathryn race.
“It never stopped because the girls kept swimming there until high school so we spent a lot of time at that pool,” said Larry.
Now a Level 5 official, Chrobot has participated in national events for five years and has watched the ultra-competitive events that lead to national team selections for international events.
“You’re doing your job but you’re seeing people who are so committed to the sport at that level,” said Chrobot. “It’s nice to be selected, it’s been a long journey.”
The Pan Am Games are set for Oct. 20-Nov-5, with all swimming events happening during the first week. Chrobot plans to build a holiday around the trip with his wife Carolyn. He’s looking forward to seeing future Olympians in the pool and also will get time to take in some of the other events at the Games.
