Former Queen's women's rugby player Rose LaBrèche has been named to World Rugby's Match Officials team for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
LaBrèche is one of 12 officials named to the women's tournament that runs August 6-8.
"I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity to referee at the Olympics, the pinnacle of sport," LaBrèche said. "It's an honour and privilege to referee the talented and hardworking 7s athletes, and I'm proud to represent not only Canadian officials, but Canadian rugby in general on the world stage.
"I've put my heart and soul into refereeing over the past few years, and it's been an unbelievable journey. I never imagined that it would lead me to where I am now. I hope that my participation in the Olympic Games will encourage other young women to consider refereeing as a viable path - it's amazingly rewarding, but also challenging. I firmly believe that it helps develop useful skills for all facets of life."
Rugby will be played for the first time in 92 years at the Games when the women's competition kicks off in the Deodora Stadium in Rio on 6 August. A panel of 12 men and 12 women will take charge of the matches over the six days, with all officials coming from the World Rugby Sevens Series.
Chairman of the World Rugby Match Official Selection Committee John Jeffrey said: "I wish to send my heartfelt congratulations to the men and women selected to referee at the Olympic Games this year.
"It is the culmination of incredibly hard work over many years and, under the leadership of sevens referee manager Paddy O'Brien, they can go on to represent their unions and World Rugby on the biggest sporting stage of them all."
Being named to the Olympics match officials team comes after what's been a busy couple of years for LaBrèche.
She refereed at last seasons HSBC Women's Sevens Series events in Atlanta, Langford and Amsterdam as well as the Dubai tournament in December 2014. She also took the whistle at the NACRA Olympic Sevens qualifiers in North Carolina as well as the Pan-Am Games in Toronto.
However, it hasn't all been sevens rugby. LaBrèche refereed at this past summer's Women's Rugby Super Series in Alberta as well as the Ontario Blues vs. American Rugby Premiership Selects game in Ottawa. She was also an assistant referee for Canada's Rugby World Cup warm-up match vs. Glasgow Warriors in Halifax and earlier this year refereed at the Women's Six Nations.
"We are very happy with today's announcement that Rose will be part of the Match Official team at the Olympics," said Andrew McMaster, Rugby Canada's Manager of High Performance Match Officials. "She has worked extremely hard for this opportunity, and it is exciting that she will be able to represent Canada in Rio."
LaBrèche will be back on the field this weekend when she officiates at the HSBC Canada Sevens at Westhills Stadium in Langford, BC.
Match officials for the women's competition:
Aimee Barrett (South Africa)
Jess Beard (New Zealand)
Beatrice Benvenutti (Italy)
James Bolabiu (Fiji)
Sara Cox (England)
Sakurako Kawasaki (Japan)
Rose LaBrèche (Canada)
Gabriel Lee (Hong Kong)
Alhambra Nievas (Spain)
Amy Perrett (Australia)
Alex Pratt (Scotland)
Rasta Rasivhenge (South Africa)
Match officials for the men's competition:
Mike Adamson (Scotland)
Federico Anselmi (Argentina)
Nick Briant (New Zealand)
Ben Crouse (South Africa)
Craig Joubert (South Africa)
Richard Kelly (New Zealand)
Anthony Moyes (Australia)
Matt O'Brien (Australia)
Taku Otsuki (Japan)
Rasta Rasivhenge (South Africa)
Alexandre Ruiz (France)
Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa)
*With files from World Rugby*
