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Volunteers are critical to the success of the Olympic Games and have a tremendous impact on the creation of positive experiences and memories for all participants and spectators. Whether it was the 2,191 volunteers at Helsinki 1952, the 28,742 at Los Angeles 1984, the 42,312 at the London Games in 2012 or the expected 50,000 at Tokyo 2020, the Games could not be staged without the commitment and support of volunteers.

Wearing uniforms which make them instantly recognisable as members of the overall Games workforce, the volunteers’ involvement at the Olympic Games and Youth Olympic Games, in the public eye or behind the scenes, takes on many forms and languages. Supporting the athletes, teams, spectators, and others during or around the sports events, volunteers provide important help in various areas such as customer service, press and communications, health services, technology, protocol and languages, transport, ceremonies, and in operational support roles for the Organising Committee.

The evolution of the involvement of volunteers in the history of the Olympic Games is as much a consequence of the change of the intrinsic structure of the Games themselves as that of external social changes. From Athens 1896 to Berlin 1936, the main volunteer efforts came from groups such as the boy scouts, the army and the amateurs who formed the first sports clubs. During the period between London 1948 and Montreal 1976, the contribution of the volunteers progressively increased thanks to the arrival of individual volunteers willing to help prepare for the Games.

Starting with Lake Placid 1980, the present-day model of Olympic volunteering began to emerge, as the tasks of recruiting, training and managing the volunteers were incorporated into the Organising Committee's programme, and by Los Angeles 1984 their role had become fundamental. The Games at Sarajevo, Calgary and Seoul embraced the volunteer element, although from different human resources perspectives.

The concept of the Olympic volunteer was first defined explicitly in an Olympic glossary produced as part of the Official Report on Barcelona 1992: “the volunteer is a person who makes an individual, altruistic commitment to collaborate, to the best of his/her abilities, in the organisation of the Olympic Games, carrying out the tasks assigned to him/her without receiving payment or rewards of any other nature.”

Since then, the scale and dimensions of the Olympic Games have led to a very important role for volunteers in the structure for staging the Games, and today encourage the Organising Committee to build and implement the best programme possible to deploy a motivated, well-trained and confident workforce during the Games.

For the volunteers, the sources of motivation to be part of the Olympic Games can be various: being part of a team; making new friends; developing new skills; having an affinity for the cause; experiencing the pleasure of giving; receiving recognition and keepsake items; expressing patriotism for one’s nation and community; being motivated to continue volunteering in the local community and gain sport-related qualifications; or being proud to be part of an exciting, powerful and world-renowned historical event.

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