Lourdes Perez describes FIVB World Cup as a successful experience – Volleyball News
Cuban native, Lourdes Perez, performed her duties as the only female referee at the 2011 FIVB Women’s Volleyball World Cup in Japan. Among the dominant male referees, she decided to take up the challenge and did an amazing job and she enjoyed a great learning
experience at her first major FIVB tournament. The international women’s event took centre stage on November 4 and it is scheduled to finish by November 18. Perez supervised quite a few matches and got the chance to work along experienced coaches from the
Federation International de Volleyball (FIVB).
Lourdes Perez comes from a volleyball family and her father was a former national referee in Cuba. She grew up watching volleyball and developed the love of this thriving sport. Remembering childhood memories, she said: “I was a small player but loved playing
volleyball and took part in many school competitions at national level. Being able to keep within the sport is a like a privilege.”
Perez started her international career officiating matches in the 2003 Pan American Cup in Mexicali, Mexico. She further completed the required number of matches at the 2006 Central American and Caribbean Games in Cartagena, Colombia. She also had the opportunity
to be one of the referees who took part in the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in 2010. She whistled the gold medal match of the 2010 FIVB Girl’s Youth World Championship in Turkey as the second referee.
After attending the major FIVB event in Japan, Perez is much more confident about her skills. She sees the expansion of the female referees’ field as an appealing idea and she can foresee more women interested in becoming volleyball judges. She said that
there are five more women in Cuba, who have been working as referees.
Perez added that she has learned a lot just being around other colleagues and she was really impressed with the high level of the competition and the professional job done by the referees and the performance of the players at the world cup matches.
She expressed delight about the amazing opportunity provided by the FIVB. She commented: “I feel very grateful to FIVB for this opportunity and the idea of having more female referees is a great one. In many cases, not to mention volleyball, women are as
firm and secure as men, so I don’t feel like a strange, just another one of the family.”
Perez has received a very positive response and she feels happy about continuing in connection with the sport she loves. She has become quite an inspiration for other women, who want to join the sport as referee.
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