The Hindu : Sport : Enthusiastic volunteers do their bit

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Enthusiastic volunteers do their bit

Pallavi Aiyar

— Photo: Pallavi Aiyar

NO CAKEWALK, THIS: The job of volunteers at the presentation ceremonies require the ability to stand ramrod-straight and smile for up to an hour at a stretch, bearing plates weighing between five and seven kg.

Beijing: Cameras flash as the 2008 Olympic medallists for a women’s gymnastics event arrange themselves on the victory podium. Presenters pick shining medals from plates adorned with crushed velvet, borne aloft by a bevy of immaculately coiffured young women. The winners smile in delight as the medals are carefully placed around their necks. The national anthems of the winning gymnasts play in quick succession. Finally, they trot away surrounded by journalists from around the world.

No, your correspondent has not managed to discover the secret of time travel and transport herself almost two months into the future when Beijing will play host to the Olympics from August 8. She is only witnessing a training session for Olympic volunteers being held by the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games.

The Beijing Olympics will involve some 100,000 volunteers to assist with the smooth-running of the Games.

Olympic zeal

A measure of the Olympic zeal that has gripped China ever since the country won the bid in 2001 to host the Games this year, is the fact that some half a million citizens applied to serve as volunteers. These applicants spent months, some even years, trying to perfect their Olympic credentials in the hope of getting chosen, despite the fact that the job is unpaid and requires a huge commitment of their time. The criteria for selection included skills like basic knowledge of sports, a familiarity with Olympic history and foreign language abilities.

The last few years have seen armies of even senior citizens, armed with municipality-issued textbooks titled, “Don’t be shy, just try,” attempting to master their English alphabet, in an effort to make the cut.

One look at the dozen or so of those assembled and it becomes clear that, in addition to “passion for the Olympics”, this group of volunteers is also uniformly comely of figure, young in age and with a height of at least 170cm.

Rigours of the job

Friday’s training session, in fact, involves the crème-de-la-crème of Olympic volunteers: the young women who have been selected to carry the medals and bouquets during the medal ceremonies.

Their training is vigorous, requiring the ability to stand ramrod-straight and smile for up to an hour at a stretch. The plates they carry weigh between five and seven kg, but they must ensure that their hands never shake.

The twenty-minute training session reporters are allowed a peek at involves an exact simulation of a real medal presentation ceremony, including announcements in three different languages — English, French and Chinese. The role of winning athletes and medal presenters is played by stand-ins.

More than 330 volunteers have been chosen to participate in the Olympics’ medal ceremonies. The 15 girls being trained this afternoon will be pressed into service at the events to be held in the National Indoor Stadium. One of them, a 20-year-old called Wu Xue Yuan recalls her nervousness during the selection process during which she had to demonstrate her abilities to “walk, smile and show my manners. To serve the Olympics and China is the greatest honour,” Wu says, flashing her most perfect hostess-like smile.

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