Paris 2024 Olympics: how to become a volunteer

Like the sale of tickets for the events, there will also be disappointed. From Wednesday March 22, everyone will be able to try their luck to become a volunteer at the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. organization of the Games, for coverage from spring 2024 until the end of the Paralympic events scheduled for mid-September.

Some criteria to meet

To apply, candidates must be aged 18 or over on January 1, 2024, speak French and/or English and be available for at least ten days during the period, up to a maximum of three consecutive months. About 60% of missions are dedicated to hospitality (guiding spectators in stadiums, accompanying athletes to doping controls, etc.) for the Games where nearly ten million spectators from all over the world are expected.

“They will be the faces of the Games with essential missions”, explained Tony Estanguet, president of the Organizing Committee for the Paris 2024 Games, from the headquarters of the Committee. The latter expressed the wish to include 3,000 people with disabilities among the 45,000 volunteers sought.

Once the application has been registered, it will be sorted according to the answers to a questionnaire and some candidates will already be selected for test events which will take place this summer, such as handball or rowing. The vast majority of candidates will be chosen by the end of 2023. In an interview with AFP, Alexandre Morenon-Condé, program manager at the Organizing Committee, also explains the need to recruit around 5,000 volunteers. outside Île-de-France, to lend a hand in certain events taking place outside the Paris area, such as sailing events (in Marseille) or shooting events (in Châteauroux).

A volunteer charter

The organizing committee specifies from the outset that a “volunteer charter” will be put in place for the lucky ones. “The commitment of the VOP (for “Olympic and Paralympic volunteer”) being by nature voluntary, he carries out his mission outside of any permanent legal subordination link, and he accomplishes the tasks entrusted to him without financial consideration or compensation of any other nature., thus describes Tony Estanguet. A sign that it is indeed volunteering, in the legal sense of the term, the volunteer will thus be able to “withdraw its commitment, at any time, for any reason whatsoever, including during the performance of the mission”.

In a report published in January on the 2024 Olympic Games, the Court of Auditors stresses to this effect that if this charter “is based on a legislative provision (Olympic law 2018, Editor’s note) and offers a bundle of solid clues that could rule out possible litigation, it remains a fragile legal framework, in the absence of any regulatory and statutory scope”.

Bonuses and constraints

On the occasion of the five hundred days preceding the start of the Games, on March 14, the Élysée had indicated that it had marked the purchase of 400,000 seats, which was the responsibility of the Minister of Sports., Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, to announce in the coming weeks the terms of allocation and the beneficiaries. Among them, the volunteers mobilized on the Olympic project should benefit from it. The selected volunteers will also have a paid meal per day and will be paid for their transport to get to the site.

However, the Organizing Committee made it clear that it would not be responsible for the accommodation of the volunteers. Candidates must therefore specify on the registration platform if they will be able to have accommodation and where.