Dorothy Okatch is a star on course to become the first Motswana basketball referee to officiate at the Olympic Games. The Botswana referee has been nominated to officiate in the 3×3 basketball at the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics. Her nomination also sets her on course to become the first female basketball referee from the Southern African region to officiate at the Olympics.
She is the only African referee in the list of referees nominated to officiate in 3×3 basketball at this year’s summer Olympics. She is selected alongside Jasmina Juras from Serbia, Qirong Shi from China, Gain Kim from Korea, Brigitta Csabai-Kaskötő from Hungary, Deanna Jackson from the United States of America, Edmond Ho from Hong Kong, Markos Michaelides of Switzerland, Marek Maliszewski from Poland, Najib Chajiddine from France and Vlad Ghizdareanu of Romania.
Her nomination is yet another milestone in a soaring career marked by many firsts within the local basketball landscape. Okatch has been an International Basketball Federation (FIBA) accredited referee since 2014. She is the first referee from Botswana to achieve the feat. Her journey to the global stage is a testament to her hard work and resilience.
After failing to get a nod to officiate at the Tokyo 2020 summer Olympics, the local referee never thought she would have a look in. Her nomination to officiate at the Paris 2024 Olympics games therefore came as a little surprise.
Okatch, who is still overwhelmed with joy, says she did not see the appointment coming. “To be honest, when I first got my license in 2014, I thought I would get to the Olympics in 5 years to officiate in the 5 on 5 basketball. That did not happen. I did not even get a World Cup call up at that time. I only had made it to AfroBasket. So, I started to doubt that I would ever get there,” she narrates.
The local referee still does not know how she was selected or what criteria is used to select referees.
“It remains a mystery to us on how we are selected for the Olympics, or for competitions of this magnitude. However, I can say that this decision is not one made from one competition, but from a series of observations in different competitions and platforms,” Okatch says.
Her performance in the year 2023 may however explain why she got her call up. In that year, she officiated in two 3×3 basketball world cups, one for the Under 23s in Poland and also University World Cup in Qatar. A year prior, she had received an invite to officiate the Commonwealth games in Birmingham still under 3×3.
“When I look back at all of these, I can see that I was being groomed for years, being prepared for this platform. Last year, for the first time ever, FIBA had an in-person training for only 6 referees and I was selected to be one of these. I believe this was an intentional preparation to groom us and see if this is something we can do and perform well at,” she says.
Through her journey, Okatch hopes girls and women in sport can learn something and know that being in sport is not a smooth sail. “The journey in sport, especially for females, never appears to be one that is easy,” she deliberates.
“The politics around it is plenty. Gender bias exists and being sidelined happens. However, none of this is reason enough to abandon your passion. Rather it must fuel you to push harder.”
She says the girl child and women in sport should accept that they will be criticized, discouraged, scarred and will cry, but at the end of the day, believe ‘they will rise.’ “Your strength as a female is undermined and not praised enough, but I come to tell you that your strength will get you to the endline and beyond. Believe in it, believe in yourself, do not lose yourself now. Stay, be patient, shut your ears and put in the work,” Okatch says.
