Wang Zhili was surprised to learn that part of being an Olympic volunteer is having a toy ready at all times.

"If a baby cries really loud and the parent can do little about it, we will quickly hand over the toys," said the 20-year-old Olympic volunteer from Tsinghua University. "The coach said this kind of incident happened at Olympic trial events before, so we'd better prepare."

A spectator service volunteer demonstrates how to wheelchair a visitor on a special training on January 31. [China Daily]

Wang is one of 20,000 people recruited by Olympic organizer BOCOG who are training to be spectator service volunteers (SPS volunteers). BOCOG has worked out dozens of emergency plans in case any young volunteers get cold feet when something unexpected happens during the Olympics.

"For example, we drafted emergency plans for SPS volunteers to evacuate everybody during extreme weather conditions," said Zhang Zhenliang, deputy director of BOCOG's volunteer department.

"The test events are also good reference for us to improve the work of our young volunteers," said Zhang, who oversees volunteer training.

Most members of the 100,000 volunteers for the Olympics are undergraduate students from about 80 universities in Beijing. Though the group is relatively easy to organize and highly motivated, the volunteers' young ages and lack of experience may fall short of expectations.

The jobs of the SPS volunteers can be even tougher during the Games, as each one will be assisting more than 350 visitors.

Games organizers consider the SPS volunteers the "eyes and ears of the Games", responsible for detecting any problems from the visitors, and the "arms and legs", which attend to any problems immediately.

Volunteer experts said anything can happen during the Games, but volunteers need to think of the best option before acting.

During an SPS volunteer competition earlier this month, volunteers were asked whether they should take away any banners brought in by spectators. The volunteers learned they should only take away content unrelated to the event, such as a political slogan. The Olympic Games generally bans any banners taken into the venues.

"SPS volunteers assist visitors to the Games, they should not act as their superiors," said Zhao Jicheng, a senior advisor to volunteers training. "Be friendly, be respectful, and don't get caught offside."

Altogether 850,000 people nationwide have applied to become Games volunteers, and 950,000 Beijing residents have applied to be 400,000 city volunteers. Games volunteers will work inside the venues, while city volunteers will help people in other places of the capital.

"The most important thing for these young volunteers is that they are able to express themselves clearly and confidently," Zhao said.