About three hours of training videos, a fair amount of texts, and several quizzes later, I’m beginning to understand my mission at the Olympic Games. After all, so far, I’ve only been told that I would be taking care of the VIPs, which was rather vague information. During a video conference in August of last year with a representative from Paris24, where my language skills were primarily tested and we constantly switched between French and English, the French sports minister was mentioned as an example of someone who might need to be looked after.
There is a photo with Václav Havel and me that I’m proud of. In general, however, I’ve never found meetings with VIPs, who often owe much of their success to luck, particularly enriching.
After hours of watching videos, reading short documents, and participating in various online quizzes designed to test my knowledge and embed important details in my memory, the outlines of my assignment are becoming clearer—even though I’ll only know the full details once I’m on-site.
At the Olympic Games, the Olympic delegation is represented by the National Olympic Committee (NOC), whose head is the Chef de Mission. For Germany, Mr. Olaf Tabor will take on this role for the first time. He is organizationally responsible for all the athletes his country has sent. In the case of Germany, this will be up to 400 athletes. His organizational tasks include:
• Bringing athletes to the Olympic Village after their arrival
• Handing over accommodations and conducting an inventory upon arrival and departure
• Registering all athletes from his country during a final meeting
• The opening ceremony
• Everything that arises during the Games, such as transportation to sports venues, medal ceremonies, arrival of family members, doping controls, etc.
• The closing ceremony and departure of the athletes
I am an assistant to the NOC and will accompany the Chef de Mission in his daily work. I will receive a SIM card and have access to the fleet of Olympic Toyota vehicles. Additionally, I am part of the language service team (LAN) and am supposed to overcome language barriers and report daily to the Paris24 team.
It’s somewhat ironic that I will be part of a linguistic service team for such a major event. In sixth grade, my English teacher told my mother during a parent-teacher conference that he admired her courage for even daring to come to him, and my poor grade in English earned me two extra years of school. I never enjoyed French class. The fact that I must have done relatively well on the language test for the Olympics is probably due to my love of travel and, of course, the many years I’ve lived in France.
However, boundaries and no-gos were also set, which could lead to my exclusion from my duties. Sharing internal information, especially regarding the sports team, is one of them. Additionally, I am prohibited from taking photos in the Olympic Village or bothering athletes with selfies. These are points that I naturally understand and that anyone with a bit of common sense could figure out on their own. Nevertheless, one or two pictures will surely be taken that I can post here, and there will certainly be plenty to report without me having to reveal any secrets.
I don’t know exactly what tasks await me or how the daily routine will be structured—whether I’ll truly be the assistant, the deputy, or just one of dozens. I also don’t know if I’ll be assisting the German team, the Austrians, or the Liechtensteiners. In any case, I will have the honor of being part of the Olympic Games and will make acquaintances with interesting people from all over the world. And I’m looking forward to that.
