I received an invite in February to learn more about Olympic and Paralympic sports through daily English lessons with Portuguese translation. For me it worked the other way round. I learnt some Portuguese words through the lessons.
The next stage was “Online Interview”. This was one of the most important stage of the volunteers journey. This stage was started from March 2015 all the way until May 2016.
I scheduled my “Online Interview” on 9 July. Basically there were three sections during the interview session. Firstly, we were asked to introduce ourselves. Then the second part, the host presented and briefed us about the Rio 2016 volunteers programme. The last part, we were asked to work as a group to come up a new jingle to attract sponsorship for the Games.
On 3 October, I received an email from NOC/NPC Relations and Services (NCS) Department that informed me that I was pre-allocated to NCS team. And they would arrange “Online Conversation” to assess my (English) language skills on later date.
A Facebook post went up in the Rio 2016 Volunteers group on 26 November to check if you are one of the first 50,000 chosen volunteers. Of the 50,000 approved candidates, 18 per cent are non-Brazilians. I put my email address and did the validation and the result that I was chosen.
On 30 November, Rio 2016 released “Obrigado 50.000 voluntários” video on their official youtube channel.
It’s a tribute to all approved volunteers and another surprise was that our names were printed on the Rio 2016 office wall.
On 1 December, I received an email from Rio 2016 to confirm that I have been approved to be a Rio 2016 volunteer.
I scheduled my “Online Conversation” on 19 December. Similar like “Online Interview”, we were asked to introduce ourselves. Thereafter, the host presented and briefed us about Rio 2016 NOC/NPC assistant volunteers programme. The host also asked us about our availability, native language and accommodation.
Road to Olympics 