An Olympic opportunity

Today marks the first opportunity for the British public to volunteer to be London 2012 Games Makers. It’s a real opportunity for everyone to get involved in the world’s greatest sporting event, hosted in our own, wonderful capital city.

With a plethora of volunteering options available, there’s certainly something for everyone - from helping directly with the sporting events, to ticketing, medical services and press operations.

I’m not here to bleat on to you about how you should offer your time and energy (admittedly I’ve just completed my application form), I just wanted to highlight how easy and accessible it is to be part of something the tax payer is paying a fortune for (free for me then...jammy!). And if it persuades one or two people reading this to step forward, then all the better.

The application process itself is quick and simple, especially if you’re looking to kill a few minutes in the office! And the rewards and future opportunities could be sensational. Personally, I want to be part of the Games in some capacity, having resigned myself to the fact that my footballing career won’t kick-off enough in the next two years to be selected as part of the Great Britain team. Damn giving up judo when I was a kid...!

I therefore decided the best way to ensure I’m in amongst the action (hopefully slap bang in the middle of the Olympic Stadium!) is to volunteer and to match-up nicely with my University degree in Multi-media Journalism, I decided my first choice option (applicants get three choices) should be in Press Operations.

The cunning Baldrick-esque plan is to volunteer, be part of the greatest sporting event to come to England in recent times (probably since the 1966 World Cup) and hopefully meet some high flying journos in the process who can offer me a job! Brilliant hey! Well, one can hope...

But aside from the grand plannage side of things, how amazing would it be to be there not only as a spectator – which in itself will be pretty damn amazing (though if I get tickets for women’s beach volleyball they’re going on Ebay!) – but to help make London 2012 the fantastic Olympics it deserves to be.

This has really and inadvertently turned into a recruitment drive blog, so I may as well go the whole hog a whack a link up too. So here you go, volunteer, get involved, be part of London 2012...just don’t make your application better than mine!

London 2012 Games Maker application