No U.S. refs picked for Olympic Games

The FIFA Referees Committee named 32 referees and 56 assistant refs for men's and women's Olympic soccer at this summer’s Rio Games. No U.S. refs were chosen.

Eighteen referees and 32 ARs officiate will cover the 16-team men’s tournament while 14 referees and 24 ARs will handle the 12-team women’s tournament in Brazil.

The 88 game officials hail from more than 40 nations. From the USA’s Concacaf region, for the men’s tournament, referees Walter Lopez (Guatemala) and Cesar Arturo Ramos (Mexico) made the cut along with two ARs from both Guatemala and Mexico. The Concacaf refs for the women’s tournament are Carol Anne Chenard (Canada) and Lucila Venegas (Mexico), along with two ARs from both Canada and Mexico.

U.S. game officials at the 2012 Olympic Games were ref Mark Geiger and ARs Mark Hurd and Joe Fletcher for the men and ref Keri Seitz and ARs Marlene Duffy and Veronica Perez for the women.

2016 Olympic men’s game officials

2016 Olympic women’s game officials

3 comments about "No U.S. refs picked for Olympic Games".
  1. Ric Fonseca, May 5, 2016 at 2:27 p.m.

    Oh wow, though I must say the omission of US refs/AR's is not surprising. IMHO, US Soccer is not making much headway in not developing game officials at all. Way out here in the wild-wild-west, I've not heard of ANY programs being instituted by any of US Soccer's affiliated state associations, the NSCAA, or even through the NCAA!!!

  2. Bob Ashpole, May 6, 2016 at 4:33 a.m.

    Good point. Many people focus on players and forget that the US needs to develop coaches and referees too to grow the sport.

  3. Ginger Peeler replied, May 8, 2016 at 2:10 p.m.

    I think that's what PRO is supposed to be doing, but Geiger has backslid since the World Cup. Where is Esse Baharmas when you need him?

Next story loading loading..
More from Soccer America Daily

Discover Our Publications