Paris-2024 is full of volunteer candidates, but beware of saboteurs

2023-05-04 10:17:09

Published on : 04/05/2023 – 10:17Modified : 04/05/2023 – 14:01

Registration to become a volunteer at the next Olympic and Paralympic Games has been closed since Wednesday. The many candidates will now pass through the sieve of the selection, the Organizing Committee seeking in particular to dismiss the false volunteers. “There will be disappointed”, already warns Tony Estanguet, president of Paris-2024.

The Organizing Committee (Cojo) of Paris-2024 needed 45,000 volunteer volunteers… and it finally has more than 300,000 candidates at its disposal. Sports fans wishing to help and guide athletes and spectators around the world for the biggest sporting event on the planet had until Wednesday May 3 to register.

The criteria were simple: be at least 18 years old on 1^is January 2024, speak French and/or English and be available for at least ten days in the summer of 2024. A third of the candidates are under 25, specified the Cojo.

As always, the candidates exceed the necessary needs, namely 30,000 volunteers for the Olympic Games (July 26-August 11, 2024) and 15,000 for the Paralympic Games (August 28-September 8). A strong contingent, if we compare the 12,000 volunteers who officiated during the 1998 Football World Cup in France, or the 8,000 or so at the Winter Olympics in Albertville in 1992.

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In Seine-Saint-Denis, where elected officials – and in particular the PS president of the department, Stéphane Troussel – are concerned that the poorest department in France does not miss out on the Olympic meeting, 1,900 inhabitants have been accompanied , in particular through training to maximize their chances.

The City of Paris also needs some 5,000 people, who will be in the streets of the capital in addition to the 45,000 volunteers from the Cojo.

Personality test

The candidates – destined to become the “faces of the Games”, as committee boss Tony Estanguet repeats – will now go through the selection sieve.

They answered some 200 questions, like a personality test. Examples: “What I have the least indulgence for: 1. inability to think or 2. lack of initiative.” or “I prefer: 1. thinking outside the box to find new solutions or 2. working for an organization that helps make the world a better place.”

Nearly 60% of the missions assigned to them are dedicated to hosting (public, media, etc.) for the Games where nearly ten million spectators are expected. For more sporting missions (just over a third), such as raking the sand of the long jump pit or picking up the balls, the sports federations will also propose their candidates, who exceptionally can be at least 16 years old.

Some candidates will already be selected for test events which will take place this summer, but the vast majority of candidates will be chosen by the end of 2023. “There will be some disappointed”, warned Tony Estanguet.

Most of the Olympic and Paralympic events will take place in Paris and Île-de-France, with the exception of sailing (Marseille), shooting (Châteauroux), basketball for the group stages and handball for the finals. (Lille), football and surfing in Tahiti. It will take about 5,000 volunteers outside Île-de-France.

Administrative investigation

To govern these “volunteers” and guard against any risk of litigation, the Organizing Committee has drawn up a charter for “Olympic and Paralympic volunteering”.

The Court of Auditors, in a report on the Olympic Games published in January, recommended to be “particularly vigilant on the application of its provisions and, in particular, on the principles of eligibility, the categories of missions and the respect of the principles of exclusion of some of them”.

Another parameter to be taken into account for the Cojo: flush out any false applications from anti-Olympics activists who have announced, on social networks, their intention to infiltrate the network of volunteers. The volunteers will be, like the accredited ones, subjected to screening, that is to say to an administrative inquiry.

With AFP