Working in the Grand Palais for the Paris 2024 Paralympics.
The Paris 2024 Paralympics begins with the opening ceremony on Wednesday 28 August and, unlike the part-time, on-call, intermittent volunteer work in the Olympics, I’ll be working full-time, frontline, and the weekend for the 11 days of competition at the venue called the Grand Palais – the Grand Palace.
The Grand Palais will host three disciplines, two inside: 1) Para Taekwondo and 2) Wheelchair Fencing, with one outside: 3) Para Triathlon, which begins and ends on the bridge outside the Grand Palais. I will have access to all three event disciplines.
Today, Monday 26 August was venue training and preparation day. I’ll be working in Press Operations and specifically in the Press Tribune box – with the best view of the events and, for the Para Triathlon, the best view of Paris.
In the Grand Palais, there will be a contingency from the Paralympic team, supported by 1,317 volunteers of 86 nationalities – 703 of them will work inside the Grand Palais, 215 will work outside, and 399 (including me) will be inside and outside.
I will be working in Press Operations with a group of 57 volunteers – who will have access to everything except the FOP – Field of Play (the octagonal area for Taekwondo, the floor for Wheelchair Fencing, and the lanes on the bridge for the last run leg of the Para Triathlon). Of that 57, a handful (including me) will be in the Tribune Press Box – the best seats in the venue to watch the competition – assisting the accredited press, international officials, or any of the officials from the 39 member federations.
Today was also the day to take photographs because volunteers will not be permitted to take photographs of the events in play. The Grand Palais is, without doubt, the grandest of all Parisian buildings.
Its full title is The Grand Palace of the Champs-Élysées, situated next to the river Seine and close to the street of the Champs-Élysées. It was built as an exposition hall in 1897 for the Universal Exposition of 1900. It became a military hospital during World War 1, a truck depot for the Nazis in World War II, the headquarters of the Parisian Resistance in 1944, a historical monument in 1965, and a museum complex soon after.
Now it contains a science museum and the National Society of Fine Arts with a major police station in the basement. It was closed from March 2021 for renovation in readiness for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It is planned to re-open to the public in the spring of 2025.
But from 26 August to 8 September 2024, the Grand Palais is my Grand Office. And what a magnificent office it is too.
Today, split into our volunteer functional groups, we received venue training and familiarization. In addition to the work and sporting zones, there is also a dining area and, next to it, a Volunteers Room to have lunch and take breaks.
INTERESTING FACT: There is a dog-friendly area for guide dogs.
INTERESTING FACT: There is every likelihood that every volunteer will get lost in the venue at least once.
The most common word today was FLOW. It was all about the flow. Not the “way” to the field of play, but the “flow” to the field of play; not the queue to the toilets, but the flow to the toilets. The flow through security checks, the flow to inside areas, the flow to outside areas, the flow to wheelchair access ramps and elevators, the flow to press boxes, the flow of athletes, the flow of athlete assistants, the flow of photographers, the flow of medical staff, the flow of spectators, the flow of communications, the flow to the water fountains, and the flow of recycling products.
Let the Games flow.
