Games volunteers told to be prepared

Young volunteers for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games must prepare themselves for unprecedented challenges including epidemic control measures and cold weather conditions while providing top services to the participants, an official in charge of volunteer work said.

"By taking part in various training sessions, the volunteers are expected to confidently provide professional services at different venues," Zhang Lina, deputy head of the volunteer department of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics organizing committee, said on Wednesday.

"Meanwhile, they have to learn how to cope with the stress caused by epidemic control measures and working in cold weather. Those conditions are even new to the organizers."

More than 1.15 million people around the world have applied to volunteer for the Winter Games, which will open on Feb 4. Only 19,000 will have the opportunity to serve, with half of them specialist volunteers who have professional knowledge, skills and expertise in given areas, Zhang said during an event to kick off the training of more than 900 volunteers from Beijing Foreign Studies University.

Since the Games started their global recruitment of volunteers on Dec 5, 2019, about 4,100 students at the university have signed up to the volunteer program, about 40 percent of the total number of students, said Huang Lunlun, head of the university's Youth League.

"People will be able to see about 800 specialist volunteers from the university at more than 20 venues in the Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou competition zones, while about 100 others will be serving at the multilingual service center that will provide translation services in 21 languages," Huang said.

He added that the volunteers will receive training, including health and safety, epidemic control protocols, emotion management, how to serve people with disabilities, and skills related to their specific posts and venues. They will soon start to familiarize themselves with the venues.

Zhang said the volunteers' jobs can be trivial and repetitive, so she hopes the students can learn to perform under pressure.

"Attention to detail is also important for volunteers' jobs because they will directly serve foreign athletes, reporters and guests," he said. "What's more, they can help the world have a better understanding about China."