In Competition: Week Five

I cannot believe that Olympic competition has only lasted two weeks - I feel like I have been working at the Water Cube for months.

This experience has been invaluable to me both professionally and personally.

Most noticeably, my note-taking ability has greatly improved.

In my last shift yesterday I felt almost disappointed that I was staying on to continue improving.

Being around professionals all day also has a great influence – it makes me feel as though I can definitely succeed somewhere in the media industry.

Throughout this experience, I have had to keep reminding myself that I am in China working at the Olympic Games.

Being part of the Games from an operational point of view, I think it has taken some of the amazement out of the Olympics for me.

Having such close contact with the athletes reminds me that these are real people that work really hard to achieve their success.

During the Diving and Synchronised Swimming this week, my interviewing techniques have been put to the test.

Disappointingly for the athletes, few journalists make it to these events.

In this time though I have been able to step up and question everyone from star-performers to gracious “I’m just happy to be here” competitors to devastated losers.

Although I’d heard that some journalists didn’t think the Mixed Zone at the Cube would be big enough, I thought this was designed and managed very effectively.

This was the most important area for the work of ONS and BOCOG can take credit for ensuring our success.

The press conferences however were another story.

For the most part, these were very disorganised, not run to schedule and poorly managed.

The International Olympic Committee stipulates press conferences should run for around 30 minutes.

The average press conference at the Cube during the Olympics went for 10 minutes.

This has been an incredible experience and I am so very thankful that I was selected for it.

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In Competition: Week Four

Olympic competition at the Water Cube began on Saturday 9^th August.

My first shift was Sunday 10^th August.

Our training definitely prepared me for the job I had to do but I did not expect the atmosphere to be so intense.

In the first week of competition, the aquatics program is incredibly busy.

Our “red shirts” (ONS Reporters and Managers) have done their best to create a successful roster which has worked well for us so far.

Our shifts have been hectic but, compared to my peers at other venues, there are relatively short.

I finally received a pair of uniform pants.

They are still one size smaller than I requested but at least I can somewhat look the part now.

The food and the times it is served has been a problem for our team.

To have the opportunity to leave the office within twenty minutes of the last race to get to lunch is a fantasy - especially when it takes at least a twenty minute wait in line to be served.

The food is quite honestly, disgusting.

I’m not fussy with food, and love eating Chinese food, but every meal I have had at my venue has consisted primarily of plain boiled rice.

The last three shifts though, our team hasn’t even made it to the meal room in the allocated serving period.

The option of sandwiches and fruit delivered to the office would have been of great assistance.

Thankfully we stockpiled a mountain of muesli bars and other assorted snacks to get us through.

This has been an incredibly long, but very rewarding, fun and memorable week.

This morning saw the last session of the Swimming so I am looking forward to a less intense week ahead with the Diving and the Synchronised Swimming.

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Venue Training: Week Three

This has been the most exciting and beneficial week of my ONS experience thus far.

I have had numerous opportunities to interview Olympic athletes and their coaching staff.

This work has sharpened my quote-taking ability and interview skills, as well as introduced me to some of the athletes I may need to meet again in the Mixed Zone once the official competition begins.

I was also asked to write a couple of news articles for INFO.

I really enjoyed compiling these and learnt a lot from our International Manager about the preferred style of this news service.

Unfortunately I, along with half of my team, still do not have the full Olympic volunteer uniform.

I have all of it except the pants but this still makes me feel like I’m not being fully professional.

We were originally told that we would receive them before the games begin but now we are being told that we may not receive them at all.

This problem has occurred at other venues as well and it is definitely an issue BOCOG must address.

Our International Manager is frustrated that we can’t all wear the correct uniform and I hope this will not affect my work opportunities during the games.

Problems with accreditation and access occurred again through this week but these issues should not arise once our focus turns to the Mixed Zone.

Another benefit of this final week of training has been learning how to deal with athletes.

Some swimmers from smaller nations are happy to chat with ONS but bigger countries such as Australia and Great Britain denied us access to their athletes on pool deck.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow and I feel as though I am prepared as I possibly can be for what it will bring.

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Venue Training: Week Two

The second week of our training at the venue has been intense, invaluable and sometimes frustrating.

It has been good to further get to know the team, particularly the Chinese volunteers and the ONS Reporters.

This week we have focused mostly on practical skills in workshops run by the ONS Reporters.

Aurelia, an ONS Reporter, ran a most useful session on shorthand for note-taking.

She copied out pages of symbols for us to learn and organised activities in which we could practise using them.

Compared to what I have heard about some training at other venues, our recent sessions have been very worthwhile.

Later on in the week, we did some simulations in the Mixed Zone.

These covered issues such as moving through packs of journalists and where to stand on the Mixed Zone barrier that will enable you to best hear the athlete’s statements.

This gave me a much better idea of how the area functions and how to use it successfully.

We have been told that journalists there may be hard to handle but that we should stand our ground.

We, as ONS volunteers, have as much right to be there as they do.

I have become a little frustrated at my venue due to my lack of real interview opportunities.

I am yet to interview an athlete at the venue when most of my colleagues have done at least one.

I am hoping this will be remedied over the weekend training sessions.

Another issue at the Water Cube is access to athletes on pool deck.

Some of our team have had trouble being admitted to areas that our accreditation allows us to access.

We noted that this seems to be a problem for some other team officials.

This is most definitely something that the Organising Committee needs to address.

I have learnt a lot this week and I hope that I can put my skills in to practise in a real situation soon.





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