Special Sporting Events and Athletic Venues - Seasonal Jobs & Full-Time Jobs

When we think of special sporting events, we most often think first of the Olympic Games, the biggest and most prestigious of them all. The Games take a lot of people to produce, and that means jobs - full-time jobs, seasonal work, temporary jobs and plenty of sports event volunteer opportunities.

The authority and operating body of the Games is the International Olympic Committee. Your mission, should you accept work with the Committee, can be taking care of business in any of these areas:

International Cooperation
Olympic Games Coordination
Relations with Other Organizations
Finance
Marketing
Legal Affairs
Technology
Control and Coordination of Operations
Communications
Medical

The IOC has selected Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to host the 2010 Winter Olympics Games, and the city is working hard now to prepare. Brand-new venues have to be constructed, as well as a lot of work on existing terrain and facilities, transportation and more, which means work for planners, developers, contractors and construction workers who support sports and athletics.

The Vancouver Organizing Committee also has a lot to do between now and 2010, and continuing beyond the Games themselves. With the games rapidly approaching, organizers are looking frantically for volunteers and others.

Most jobs at the Vancouver Olympics will be given to Canadians but some non-Canadians may find jobs too.

Volunteer recruiting started in 2008 for both pre-Games and Games-time volunteers. See the Sports Venues Links page for the website to check on updates and get involved. Your own special skills can get you into the areas you enjoy, but these are the main requirements: enthusiasm; dedication; and a commitment to team, trust, excellence, sustainability and creativity. Running the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games will take about 25,000 volunteers!

The Paralympic Games are events with athletes of various disability groups. Vancouver expects 1,700 athletes and team officials from over 40 countries in the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games.

The Special Olympics is a year-round competition and training venue for over 2 ¼ million people with intellectual disabilities in more than 150 countries. There are always opportunities for Coaches to help these athletes realize their own worth, abilities and courage. Coaches do all these things, too:

Get the facilities and equipment for training
Recruit athletes and Assistant Coaches
Teach and train athletes in sports skills
Encourage confidence and self-esteem
Conduct community demonstrations
Start Partners Clubs of coaches with their athletes
Start Unified Sports® Teams

Special Olympics Unified Sports joins up Special Olympics athletes with "Partners" - athletes who don't have intellectual disabilities - in training and competition.

An example of a regional event is the 2006 Summer Games for Washington State.

The venues are at Fort Lewis (a military community, population 40,000), the adjacent McChord Air Force Base and the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center. There are swimming events from 10 Meters to 1000 Meters as well as Unified Relays; running, walking, jumping and throwing events and Unified relays; wheelchair events; cycling time trials and road races from 500M to 40K, Unified Team and team races; power lifting; and soccer with both Special Olympics teams and Unified teams. This is who will be there: 2,300 Special Olympics Athletes and Unified Partners; 550 Coaches; 2,500 Volunteers; and 3,000 family members and friends to cheer.

As one Special Olympics coach and volunteer says, her proudest moment is when an athlete takes the awards stand, in whatever place they finished. They did it. See the Links page to learn more, and use the Program Locator online to contact your local program and become a Coach.

Marathons are not only huge foot races, they're wildly popular with pro athletes, kids, moms and pops, and they're growing every year. The Pacific Shoreline Marathon in Huntington Beach, California is just one example. The venue is the awesome Pacific shore, and this event is made possible by 50 Area Coordinators and more than 1,000 Volunteers. Volunteers need leadership skills to manage their areas of the marathon. Coordinators are trained in specific areas, and manage groups of individuals in their areas. As a Coordinator, you can learn about the sport of running; learn about special event production; meet and work with others who share a passion for the sport; get free shirts and goodies and go to the thank-you dinner party.

The marathonguide.com website offers "Everything Marathoning" online, and sells marathon directories of information and contacts for events in the U.S.A. and internationally. Companies such as Road Race Management, Inc. (RRM) provide event management services, and employ people to promote, organize and manage marathons. RRM has links to the other event management companies on their website. See the Sports Venues Links page for these resources.

In addition to running and walking marathons, there are other exciting events in cycling and special events such as triathlons. Many of the latter take advantage of beautiful natural venues, such as the Ski-To-Sea from Mount Baker to Puget Sound in Washington State. Bicycling Magazine calls the Group Health Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic (STP) one of the best cycling events in the country. Nine thousand riders take this 200-mile ride in a day or two - their choice. These types of events happen all over the United States, in Canada, and throughout the world. How about the Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii?

As with most anything ESPN does, they carry sports to extremes in the annual X Games. The 2006 edition is held around Los Angeles, with the main venues being Home Depot Center in Carson and the Staples Center in beautiful downtown L.A. with live coverage on ESPN and ABC Sports. The latest sport to be added to the line-up is Rally Car Racing. Although a road rally is often run within traffic laws on open streets and roads, this version is more of a flat-out race on closed sections of public roads. A navigator provides direction and communications for the driver. It's fast and it's exciting! The event is organized by Rally America. Other sports include BMX Freestyle, Moto X, Skateboard and Surfing.

In addition to X Games Staff, lots of volunteers are recruited here. Duties of volunteers include these:

hospitality
crowd control
ushering
access control
credential checking

With the addition of a road rally, there will be more to do along the course, as well. Mainly, you're there to help the spectators and guests. Volunteers here get more than a T-shirt, by the way. You get X Games apparel all right, and then there are sponsor goody bags, snacks, refreshments and the Volunteer Appreciation party. (And something extra if you're available through the whole event.) Yet more stuff comes in a volunteers' raffle from local businesses.

Other road rallies, sports car rallies and rally road races are going on all the time. Visit the Rally Central website, produced by Rally America, for information on all of these:

Rally Clubs and Organizations
Rally-related Clubs and Organizations
4-Wheel Drive Clubs and Organizations
Driving Schools
Rally Team Links
Sources of rally equipment
Manufacturers of rally-specific equipment
Distributors, Importers, and Dealers of rally equipment
Periodicals

If you're interested in getting involve with this sport, check out some of these magazines:

Autoweek
Dusty Times
Grassroots Motorsports
Rally Magazine
Sports Car (SCCA's monthly magazine)

SCCA, the Sports Car Club of America, has a comprehensive training and accreditation program for volunteer operations staff of motorsports. SCCA staff and trained volunteers are at all the major road racing events - NASCAR, CART, Formula One, rallys and other motorsports of all kinds. Probably the most exciting of them is the Champ Car World Series of Grand Prix road races on city street courses across the country. All Marshals working at these events must have a current SCCA License.

If you want to get sweaty and dirty and full of adrenaline, get down on the track in one of these positions:

Flagging and Communications - signaling the drivers + incident First Responder
Marshal - supervising the paddock, start-finish line, course and pits
Starter - center of attention, communicator and final word at the finish line
Emergency Services - lifesaving medical response, fire fighting or vehicle recovery

Officials are needed to:

Scrutineer - inspection and compliance
Timing and Scoring - it takes a computer to deliver the results
Registrar - the first official a racer meets
Steward - the boss - making sure they do what they should and they all have fun

To get on as a worker or an official, go to an event and volunteer. That's easy. To learn more and advance as a licensed volunteer or in a career, see the Sports Venue Links page for more.

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