“It was life-changing”. This is just a few of the phrases my school teacher (Mr O’Brian) used to describe his time volunteering at the London 2012 Olympics in Stratford.  To be precise he was the Team leader for Sports Information department in Aquatics, so that meant telling the Athletes/their coaches about the training times/transport from the athlete’s village and also race Times.

Apart from attending to the actual duties he also mentioned, Athletes asking him for “directions to a Pub” or a “good souvenir shop”, this I think shows the more human side of them, as opposed to this fixed image we have of them being supernatural beings.  When asked what his favourite moment was (There were a lot!), he replied, “Getting to know the smaller countries” and then he led on to telling an anecdote about this athlete from Mali (A country in West Africa), who didn’t have the sufficient equipment and his swimming pool wasn’t long enough as the one used in the Olympics but he still ended up in the Olympics competing against the likes of Michael Phelps the greatest Olympian of all time and Ryan Lochte (Whom he both met).

Unfortunately Mamadou (Swimmer from Mali) didn’t get past the heats but what he liked about Mamadou was that “he always said hi and asked how everyone was” everyday when he came to train. He ‘used fully the opportunity he had to train and the title of being an Olympic athlete never went to his head”. He appreciated his motivation and enthusiasm.

Also during the Olympics he met a lot of the famous swimmers, which as we, normal people would only dream to see but even I have to say a person which he met who we all know really well: The Queen! Alongside her was the Duke of Edinburgh. The queen “was in the same room as me”. Apart from meeting the Queen he also met some of the most famous Swimmers: Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Rebecca Adlington, Liam Tancock, Tom Daley (he actually ‘ran into him’), Mark Foster and Seth Coe. 

When I asked do you plan to volunteer at other Olympics/ related events, I already knew the answer, which was ‘Yes’. He has actually “started saving up” for Rio 2016 in Brazil, which is across the world but after having such an amazing experience here, meeting so many influential people and being a part of something so big, without a doubt you would want recreate that. An exciting event, which is also coming up, is the Commonwealth games in Glasgow, which he also intends to volunteer at. He has “started filling in the forms” and I wish him good luck!

Perhaps now you see why it was a “life changing experience”. Just be volunteering it can give you so much insight and it gives you a chance to do try things that you’ve never done before.