missions, conditions, dates… Six questions to find out how to become a volunteer during the Olympic and Paralympic Games

Experiencing the Games from the inside is one of the key arguments of the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Cojop). From Wednesday, March 22, and until May 3, the organizers are launching their campaign to recruit volunteers. A single call for applications phase will make it possible to recruit the 45,000 volunteers expected by Paris 2024, approximately two thirds of whom will be assigned to the Olympic Games. Registration, procedure and missions, franceinfo: sport offers you a complete guide to participate in the campaign.

What are the tasks of volunteers?

The missions of Olympic and Paralympic Games volunteers are divided into three main categories. Firstly, reception, orientation, information and assistance concerning “the athletes, the media or the spectators”, as explained by Alexandre Morenon-Condé, deputy director in charge of HR planning and operations for the Games.

Volunteers are also expected around sports performance (35%), at competition sites. This will bring together doctors, veterinarians (for horses during riding events), ball collectors, statistical centers during events, support for official timekeepers, or even assistance for athletes in their spaces on the competition sites among others. Finally, the remaining 5% is used for organizational support, such as the distribution of accreditations or uniforms to volunteers, etc.

What are the conditions to be met?

To have a chance of being among the volunteers of the Games, three essential conditions must be met: be 18 years old on the 1^er January 2024, speak French and/or English fluently, and be available for at least 10 days for the Olympic and/or Paralympic Games. The volunteer campaign is open to everyone, with the organizers aiming for parity.

“It is not compulsory to speak French and English, but at least one or the other. If you speak other languages, you can mention it with your level in the form”, completes Alexandre Morenon-Condé, in charge of the volunteer campaign. “It is not necessary to have knowledge of Olympic and Paralympic sports or experience of other sporting events as a volunteer. But you will be asked to allow us to refer profiles”, he continues.

How to apply?

To send his application, an online form must be completed by the candidate on the paris2024.org website. Personal information will be requested (identity, place of residence, age etc.). An orientation questionnaire is then to be completed to understand the personality of the candidate and direct him towards the right missions. A percentage accounting rate for each mission will then be sent to candidates for information purposes. “The candidate will select the missions that interest him. He will therefore only be mobilized on the missions on which he wished to be”, assures Alexandre Morenon-Condé.

Availability will also be requested for the period of the Olympic and Paralympic Games as well as before the event. The organizers need volunteers during preparation missions such as for the test events, or the issue of accreditations a few weeks before the Games. Candidates should also indicate their duty station preferences. “They will never be mobilized in an area that they have not indicated”, assures Alexandre Morenon-Condé. A small box will also ask you about your motivations for becoming a volunteer.

In addition, this form allows you to apply for the Paris 2024 volunteer program as well as that of the city of Paris, if you wish. This is a “complementary program”, which will recruit an additional 5,000 volunteers. They will have reception, animation and logistics missions on the competition sites, on the places of parties organized throughout the capital as well as in the media center of the city.

What are the volunteering conditions on site?

Each volunteer will carry out their mission eight hours a day on average. “There may be some exceptions, for example for those who will be on tennis, where the missions can extend up to 10 hours a day”, says Alexandre Morenon-Condé. “A reasonable rest of at least 11 hours between two working days” will be respected as well “only one day off per week” at least.

Local public transport as well “than a lunch or dinner meal” will be the responsibility of the organizers for each volunteer. On the other hand, the latter will have to manage his own accommodation, as is traditionally the case at the Summer Games. Moreover, being accredited as a volunteer does not offer the possibility of access to competitions, unless the mission takes place as close as possible to the athletes.

When will the answers be given?

Whether you are selected or not, an email in the fall of 2023 will be sent to those interested on the follow-up that will be given to their applications. These will first be sorted by an algorithm, before the Paris 2024 teams check and refine the assignments for each candidate. If the whole process is done online, the organizers will be able to call certain candidates to specify certain elements of the application: the adaptation that may be necessary for volunteers with disabilities or the verification of specific skills, linguistic or medical for example.

When will the volunteer mission begin?

First of all, the volunteers will receive training. A first part will be done online in order to give “general information, and to acculturate them to the Games”, underlines Alexandre Morenon-Condé, before a second part “on the sites where they will be assigned to discover the environment, understand how their mission will be exercised”. The entire training will last between one or two days maximum. However, the first volunteer missions will begin this summer for the first test events. The other missions will start around the opening of the athletes’ village in July.