Front line insight: an autoethnography of the Vancouver 2010 volunteer experience

Abstract

Building on a growing body of research regarding major sport event volunteerism, this paper shares the personal lived experience of the first author's involvement as a volunteer with the 2010 Winter Olympic Games held in Vancouver, Canada. Autoethnography was used to provide rich insight into the personal and cultural context of volunteering (Ellis & Bochner, 2000). The personal narrative is represented in six themes that reflect her most meaningful experiences leading up to, during and following the Games: (1) A figure skater's dream: making the cut, (2) Uncertainty: going with the flow, (3) The basics: training, (4) ‘Blue team’: volunteer culture, (5) An Olympic spirit is born: leisure time, and (6) Returning home: prestige. The narratives are compared and contrasted with the major sport event volunteer literature to understand their alignment with the existing body of research and to consider the further insights they provide. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research.

Keywords:

• sport event volunteer
• Olympics
• identity
• organizational culture