While many Canadians will be on the edge of their seats cheering on Sidney Crosby and the rest of the Canadian men’s hockey team, two Royal City men will get to soak up the atmosphere and watch the games live.
Ken Elmer and David MacGrotty are among the 25,000 volunteers at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Both men previously volunteered at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
“The Russians have tried very hard to create a Vancouver atmosphere but can't do it without people,” Elmer wrote in an email to The Record. “Sochi is 30 minutes away from the site and has a population of about 40,000...long plane rides from other major cities like Moscow just aren't happening.”
While thousands of people from around the Lower Mainland flocked to downtown Vancouver each night to celebrate at medal ceremonies, Elmer said security is so tight that few people are on the Olympic site other than volunteers and police.
“Most venues have had few people, so volunteers have been getting tickets to help fill the stadiums,” he wrote.
Elmer noted that dozens of lovely beer gardens are decorated with Russian themes and have great musicians – but few people. As the games continue, he said the action was picking up a little bit and there were some lineups to buy tickets – “but still nothing like Vancouver in 2010.”
According to Elmer, all of the NHL players are staying at the athletes’ village, something that big-name athletes have avoided at some Olympics because they get petered by other athletes. Elmer, who competed in athletics for Canada in the 1972 Olympics in Munich, is pleased they have a chance to enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Because MacGrotty and Elmer are driving NHL officials and NBC representatives who oversee the hockey broadcasts, they will likely be viewing most of the men’s hockey games from the media section. So far, Elmer said he’s been lucky enough to watch the Canadian women’s hockey team’s game and several men’s hockey games.
“A real treat to watch,” Elmer said of the finesse game taking place on the Olympic-sized ice.
While there may be few spectators at the Sochi Olympics, Elmer said volunteers are everywhere.
“The preparation for the Sochi volunteers was one of the largest and most innovative of all Organizing Committee projects, incorporating all regions of Russia into preparation for the Games,” he wrote. “A total of 25,000 volunteers are involved in the staging of the Games and unlike most countries there was no volunteer program at all before this program.”
According to Elmer, volunteer centres across the country recruited and trained volunteers and any Russian citizen could become a volunteer. He noted that about 1,200 volunteers are foreign nationals who have come from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Kazakhstan, Germany, Belarus, France, Japan, New Zealand, Cameroon, Congo and Pakistan.
“These volunteers for the most are young university students who are bright, keen and friendly and oh so love practising their English with anyone who will stop and chat,” he wrote. “They have their air fares paid for from all over Russia. I have met several great volunteers from Siberia. They are outfitted with spiffy track suits, rain suits, warm boots and running shoes, The host organization takes care of their accommodation and there are huge meal tents for the volunteers around the Olympic site. This is an opportunity of a lifetime for these young men and women. They are making friends and developing relationships with others all over Russia. This is a lasting legacy for the Sochi 2014 Winter Games for sure.”
Janet Neufeld, Elmer’s wife, said the two New Westminster men are roommates in Sochi.
“Ken worked with NBC in 2010,” she said of his previous experience volunteering at Olympic Games. “He was driving Meredith Vieira of the Today Show, and David had Matt Lauer.”
