Tokyo Olympics: 10,000 volunteers hit the hurdles of Covid-19, chaos and not much to do

Around one in 10 of the 110,000 people who had signed up as volunteers for the Tokyo Olympics are thought to have thrown in the towel

Coronavirus fears put off many, while some ran in to organisational problems. For others there is a mental barrier: boredom

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A Tokyo Olympics volunteer wearing a facemask poses with volleyballs behind a protective plexiglass plate at the media centre ahead of the opening of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Photo: AFP

Published: 7:00am, 3 Aug 2021Updated: 9:37am, 3 Aug 2021

Keen sailor Ikuko Nagano had hoped to escort tourists to Fujisawa for the regattas; expat teacher Jordan Michels had wanted an Olympic volunteering pin like those her father and grandfather got for Atlanta 1996; translator Emma Parker had been willing to fund her own way to Tokyo in return for a taste of the action.

But all three, like thousands of others, had to rethink their Olympic volunteering dreams when problems began stacking up for the Tokyo Games.

Of the 110,000 volunteers who had originally stepped forward to help Japan’s biggest ever sporting event go smoothly, almost one in 10 are thought to have dropped out. Many lost heart when it became clear traditional volunteer roles, like showing around foreign VIPs and redirecting lost tourists, would no longer be needed as Japan banned overseas spectators from attending.

Others decided it was simply too risky to be travelling around the capital as coronavirus infections shot up even as the country’s vaccination programme stalled. Still others were foreigners who had volunteered from abroad and were barred from entering the country as the coronavirus pandemic gained steam.

Tokyo Olympics volunteer Ikuko Nagano. Photo: Handout

For those who stayed the course, despite the unusually large drop out rate, there is barely enough genuine volunteering work left to go around. Organisers have said they did not cut the number of volunteers because they did not want to disappoint, so there are more spare hands than tasks to assign. As a consequence, many volunteers find themselves acting as stand-in spectators or taking on new, unexpected roles.

Nagano, an active member of Fujisawa city’s sailing club, is among them. Rather than show tourists around she has been watering the plants at Fujisawa station and has made videos of herself dressed in her blue-and-white uniform to cheer the athletes online. On Sunday, she acted more like a spectator, waving flags at passing athletes.

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