What's it like at the 2022 Beijing Olympics? Sudbury's Randy Pascal shares his experience

Sudbury's Randy Pascal is no stranger to the Olympics but he says the pandemic has certainly changed the games.

Pascal is a sports journalist from Sudbury and an official for the Ontario Hockey League. 

He has risen up the ranks in officiating and is currently working at the Olympics in Beijing as a scorekeeper for the men's hockey games. In the past, he's worked at the Olympics in Vancouver in 2010 and in South Korea in 2018.

Pascal said testing for COVID-19 has been a priority .

"I think everyone actually feels fairly safe," he said.

"They're doing a good job of kind of catching people that are COVID carrying at the source right before they ever get in. So certainly that is one thing and, you know, having the mask around and things like that."

One highlight so far for Pascal was attending the opening ceremonies last Friday.

"The experience of being at an opening ceremonies is always unbelievable," he said.

"We were there probably two hours early. So there's a meet and greet, you know, with delegations from different countries. And so we had a chance to kind of roam around and introduce ourselves to people and people from different sports as well. So again, that's that's I think that's a big part of it. And I think the athletes would say the same even within a closed loop system." 

As for score keeping, Pascal said he will be working at all of the men's games through to the end. Despite that, he's still hoping to take in other events as a spectator.

"The Women's Gold Medal game is on our day off at our rink, so there's a really good chance of hopefully we'll get the opportunity to go over there and take in the game as a fan of the sport, which to me is equally as fun, right?" he said.

"I mean, it's unfortunate because we can't get on any of the other events like curling is right across the street from us, which would be wonderful to be able to go in, but it's just not possible with the way the closed loop sort of set up."

Despite being from Canada, Pascal acts as a neutral official when at the games. However, he said it's still exciting to see Canada play.

"There is an element, I suppose, in my stomach that, you know, when Canada's playing that you notice it a little bit more," he said.

"But you're just so focused on the job at hand."