The Olympics and Paralympics have now ended. In the midst of escalating coronavirus infections, Tokyo decided to carry on after the main Olympics and, by all accounts, the very important Paralympics were a big success. It’s been a controversial, emotional, confusing, fascinating, memorable and, I think, worthwhile experience. I’m glad to see that the infection rates are now dropping after reaching a peak recently.
Having lived more than half my life in Japan, I often feel like giving something back. So I undertook this much longer-than-expected journey to be a volunteer for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics back in early 2019. As we all know, much has transpired in the world since then; it feels like another era. Here is a short diary of my time with the Olympics.
My last volunteer day at the Oi Hockey Stadium was on Wednesday. The whole volunteer team seem to bond and we were feeling weepy when it was over. Because there were no spectators, there wasn’t a lot to do, but somehow we felt like we were busy all day rotating between shifts and visiting different locations at the site.
They even had us in spectator shifts to cheer on the women’s hockey teams. I got to actually sit and watch Great Britain versus The Netherlands for a while and saw two goals and got to meet IOC Vice President Coates and some “team family” members.
Our early morning briefing. Notice on the whiteboard that I am the head of the C Group for the day.On the veranda outside the VIP lounge overlooking the north pitch.Here we are preparing to greet the Great Britain team when they arrive and enter the stadium.
And a video of us getting ready for the team to arrive.
Just before the game begins.As you can see, the stands are almost completely empty.The flags of the Netherlands and Great Britain, waiting for the team members, and then they do the national anthems.Here I am out on parking lot duty. This involved waiting for cars to arrive, and then directing people to the check-in spot. No cars arrived this day. And the parking lot was largely empty.On entrance duty. My job is to make sure that people entering this section have the correct credentials, click them with a counter, and I have a walkie-talkie to communicate with everybody else.They did let volunteers into a section of the stands later in the day to cheer on the teams so they wouldn’t be completely alone.Here I am in the stands watching the Great Britain versus Netherlands game. I actually got to see a goal from each team. The first time in my life I ever saw a hockey goal!Meeting IOC Vice President Coates.At the elevator entrance, greeting members of the “Olympic Family” who arrive.A person connected with the Dutch team gave me this as a souvenir. It’s a pencil, and at the tip there are carnation seeds. She encouraged me to plant them even though I told her that plants commit suicide when they come to my house.A fellow volunteer and I making the 2020 symbols with our hands.Laura, who was in charge of our volunteer team for the last couple of days. I finally coaxed a smile from her on the second day.My pins! on the left is a hockey stadium volunteer pin. Next is a Field Cast pin that I won in a drawing on my last day. Then you see my gold, bronze, and silver volunteer pins. Gold is after five days of volunteering. Below that is a general Olympic pin given to me by a member of the Indian team. Everybody saying goodbye at the end of my last day. We were feeling pretty emotional by them. It was a great group of people. Even with everything going on I’m glad I was able to experience volunteering for the Olympics. It will be a lasting memory, and I made new friends.
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Final volunteer days at Tokyo 2020 Olympics — No Comments
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