Kiwi taekwondo referee, Stan Wagner, has been selected in to a group of 30 as the only New Zealander to be officiating at the London 2012 Olympic Games. He is also only one of two people that have been selected from Oceania, the other being Australian referee Kerry-Ann Lister.
The original selection was made from 4,500 referees around the world which was cut down to 400, then reduced to 60 before a final 30 were chosen.
Wagner last week returned to the country from China to attend a national high performance taekwondo camp at the Sport and Rugby Institute at Massey University.
He will be the first New Zealander to have refereed at the junior world championships, senior worlds and the Olympics and his goal was to get the "big four" by doing the world cup in Aruba in November.
Wagner has been on more than 10 overseas trips refereeing and during the qualification process as an Olympic ref.
Recently he has been to Thailand, London, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Korea and China officiating and as part of the refereeing selection process.
A referee can't control a fight between someone from their own continent and Wagner wasn't holding his breath for a medal match.
Wagner began refereeing at an international level in 2005.The Lower Hutt black belt was also the New Zealand heavyweight champion in his competing days from 1988-1990.
