Weyburn's Alex Clarke is training for a performance peak in February, when she will be working as a Hockey Official refereeing at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milano-Cortina. However, she said she just resumed her ice time last week.
"I try to stay off the ice in the summertime, just because you get burnt out from nine months on the ice, but [I did] a lot of off-ice conditioning, a lot of fun things with the kids, just to mentally reset."
Since hockey is a speed sport and requires muscle conditioning conducive to explosive motions, during hockey season, Clarke is unable to prioritize her other athletic hobbies.
"Hockey has been my life, all of my life. But on the officiating side, it's been my life for the last 10 years. I've skated from 80 to 120 games every season for the last 10 years," she shared.
"So this season, I'll peak in February for the Olympics, hopefully some big things in the other leagues that I work in, and then the goal is to scale back a little bit next year and train for life."
"I love running, and I've stopped running anything further than a 10K because it impacts my performance on hockey, it impacts the training I can do with hockey. So maybe run a 25K trail race for fun, because I like doing that, and spend some time with the kids, and just balance things a little better. I'm not going to stop hockey, but hopefully scale back and be able to do more."
"If you're out running a 20K on a Sunday, then you can't go and do sprints on a Monday, so I've had to adjust my training," she explained. "It's not even just running. All of my training has had to adjust because I've started skating professional hockey, so for me to keep up to men that skate the American League, for me to keep up to women who are skating in the PWHL, I need to be the most explosive, fastest, strongest version of myself, and I had to adapt my training to be different than what I was doing before, to be able to keep pushing that pace."
Such intensive training, which is done on-ice by refereeing actual hockey games, is also about being able to make the best calls as an Official.
"We have to be able to skate as fast as the players and then, just like the players, we have to make decisions. So you can't be out there skating as fast as the players and be absolutely gassed. Otherwise, your mental clarity isn't there. So you need to be able to make tough decisions and see things on the ice, and if your vision is blurred because you're gassed, then you're probably not going to make good decisions out there."
Working with different crews every game, Clarke said her personality is suited well to the Official side of hockey.
"You've got to be pretty adaptable, and who you work with on a day-to-day basis changes. We are 'Switzerland on the ice', more or less, which actually works really well with my personality because I'm very neutral on things. I've never had a favourite team. We see different teams every night. In the Western League, my home arena is Moose Jaw, but that doesn't mean I only work in Moose Jaw, that's just where I work the most games."
"When I started reffing competitively in the fall of 2015, I was contemplating coaching. Looking back, I didn't want to be tied to a specific team, to a specific schedule. I wanted a little bit more independence in planning that for myself. So reffing fit really, really well. I didn't maybe know at the time, but hindsight being 2020, reffing was a really good choice personality fit for me."
Clarke said no matter how neutral or fit an Official may be, injuries will happen.
"I've been body checked. I've been punched. I've been slew foot. Yeah. Knock on wood, it's never been a debilitating career injury, but you're in there and you run the risk."
In a regular season, she said she often meets the other Officials 90 minutes before the game.
"You chat about the teams, the history, the players, a little bit about their family situation, kind of get to know each other, build some rapport if you haven't met them before, and 90 minutes later, you're on the ice together and trusting one another with calls, with safety, with everything."
Even when referees don't see eye-to-eye, it must be set aside for the game.
"If there are players on the ice that don't like one another, that doesn't mean they don't pass to the other person, to put the puck in the net. You have the same goal when you're on the ice, at least."
Clarke said another aspect of working as an Official with each league is having to arrange your own travel, meals, and more.
"You don't have an equipment manager. You're kind of just showing up on your own and meeting the people you work with and skating a hockey game."
While she will represent both Canada and the International Ice Hockey Federation at the Olympic Winter Games, not being there as part of Team Canada means much of the same independence on the business side. However, Officials are reimbursed for expenses, and the hotel block is booked in Milano, with flight requests already submitted.
"The teams all have their schedules. We'll show up three days before, four days before the Olympics start, and that's when we'll find out what games we skate. So we don't have any idea what our schedule is while there. You get pretty pretty good at showing up and adapting to the situation."
She said they are there to do a job, but she is hoping to get to see more of Italy during the 2026 Olympic Winter Games than she did in 2022.
"Beijing was kind of at the tail-end of Covid, so we were bubbled while we were there. We got to do absolutely nothing. We went from the hotel to the arena, to the hotel, to the arena, and we were compounded in those areas. So we could not physically leave those areas and do anything else. We couldn't go to a merchandise store. We couldn't go to the Olympic Village. There was no Olympic experience. So that was part of the drive to go back to this Olympics: I want that Olympic experience."
"The events are very spread out throughout Italy for this Olympics. It actually might be one of the most spread-out Olympics in history. But the plan is to go to different events to take different things in to see Italy while you're there and really get an experience with it on top of the hockey."
Clarke added that the family of an Official doesn't often make the trip, as they are there to do a job. "You want to maintain the integrity of the game, and the goal is to give the game the best version of yourself."