On being an "Olympic" Interpreter


While some members of 'Calliope Interpreters' have worked as interpreters for the Olympic Games--Danielle Grée organized the interpreter team for the Barcelona games in 1992 and Phil Smith, Rosaura Bartumeu and Carol Davies were part of that team, Hazel Cole was at the games in Canada and Bertold Schmidt in Sydney--for Martine Bonadona this was a first. She shares her experience as first-time interpreter for the Olympic Games in Athens with us.
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I was of course very pleased to be selected to be part of the official interpreter team at the Athens Olympic Games, but a little anxious as well. I was not sure I had the necessary experience to do a first-rate job in all of the various athletic disciplines. I knew I had to prepare, and prepare well, but did not know exactly how to go about it. What precisely would our work consist of? Typical press conferences, expert meetings discussing the technical side of each sport, or assisting the athletes? I didn't have a clue. Clearly the only thing to do was to talk to experienced colleagues, and to look for specialized glossaries. All of which was made easy thanks to Calliope's network.

We had been asked by the "Athens 2004 Organizing Committee", or ATHOC for short, to list our favourite sports. Shortly before departure I received a tentative program with five disciplines, but it included only two of the eight preferences I had listed (out of a total of 37 possible). These were artistic gymnastics, sailing, synchronized diving, track cycling and tennis. Also included were meetings at the Olympic Village and press conferences where just about any topic could come up.

Not knowing whether to expect a cushy assignment, part-holiday, part-work in a hot country, or long days spent freezing in an air-conditioned booth, I packed everything, not forgetting of course dictionaries and all the material I had gleaned from the Internet in preparation for the assignment. At the airport I ran into other colleagues and we quickly discovered that we all shared the same concerns, which brought us some measure of comfort. Arriving quite late at night, we found that we were already part of the 'Olympic Family' and as such entitled to use the Olympic coaches.

The next day we were briefed, all 150 of us, on our new identity as "Olympic interpreters" and given a nice sports bag to prove it. We also received our badges, glossaries in the three official languages of the Athens games--French, English and Greek, and an Olympic cap which I promptly lost, along with a mass of instructions about transport, venues, hotels and our duties. And, last but by no means least, a nice cell phone, courtesy of one of the Games' sponsors, so the organizers could reach us at any time of the day or night to give us instructions on where to go. We wore the phones around our necks on a little cord, just like the thousands of volunteers deployed all over town. Armed with our badges and cell phones, we were officially on board.

We were put up in various hotels, all more than adequate in terms of comfort, apparently for security reasons (to avoid grouping people together in the event of a terrorist attack, which was a very real concern for the organizers), although it may have been dictated simply by logistical requirements or hotel availability. Some interpreters stayed in a hotel near Omonia Square which, though more modest than mine, boasted a swimming pool on one of the upper floors. The pool soon became our unofficial headquarters and general congregating place, and was referred to as "the office" for the sake of sounding professional. The Divani Hotel, where the Medical Commission held its meetings also had a pool, and was highly rated by those interpreters fortunate enough to be staying there.

Our first day was spent in briefings. We were told that interpreting was required for the technical and medical commissions, meetings of the Heads of Mission in the Olympic Village (they are in charge of each country's delegation), meetings of the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and the press conferences held after the finals, following the medal award ceremonies. Interpreters were not required in the so-called "mixed zone", where athletes pass after their event on their way back to the changing areas and journalists from all over the world lie in wait. We, as official Olympic interpreters, were not to be involved in radio and TV broadcasting, which took place in a huge building designated as the International Broadcasting Centre. Another team of interpreters had been hired to cover their needs. We quickly discovered that in the mixed zone journalists were primarily interested in interviewing athletes from their own country and as a consequence there was not much of a language problem. When there was a need for interpreting, one of the Olympic Games volunteers, recognizable by their bright T-shirts, would be called to the rescue. They were many of them, and they covered most languages, even the more exotic ones.
Finally we are told that we would be getting our daily program as a text message, and that if need be we would receive a phone call. We got our provisional schedule, which had already been changed from what we had initially received.

On the non-professional side of things, the Chief Interpreter urged us to take advantage of the numerous side events taking place all over town, from various shows to the wild Athens night life (the worst traffic jams occur at night time). Our contracts stipulated that we were expected to work seven hours a day, and until we had fulfilled our quota we were technically still on call, no matter how late. We were not allowed to stray too far, just in case they needed us. We were not allowed to attend the events, as in theory we could be taking up seats that spectators had paid for and journalists needed to do their job! And finally we were told to organize our own transport from one location to another, using all means available, including buses for the press. The news of course caused some consternation in our ranks.

We had a full two days ahead of us before the official opening of the Games and we spent them exploring the sites in small groups, and getting to grips with the public transport system. The metro had undergone a complete facelift and the renovated stations were magnificent; a brand-new tram was running, though not from the centre yet. Buses were available everywhere: Olympic buses running along specially reserved lanes and the usual city buses, as well as many taxis some of which were charging higher fares on account of the access fee they had to pay to use the 'Olympic lanes'. We got maps of everything: the city, the venues, and all the transport routes.

I set out to explore the Main Press Centre or MPC for short, where we would be interpreting for press conferences. The MPC was located next to the OAKA sports complex so I decided to take a look at it as well. This was my first exposure to the elegant, streamlined work of the Spanish architect Calatrava. I was to come back often to this site during the next two weeks, and never failed to be awed by its architecture. The structure of the Olympic stadium - where the opening ceremony took place - was gigantic yet airy, as were the alley with intertwined grill work leading to the metro station, the aesthetically pleasing track cycling stadium, and the Wall of Nations, a large structure made of wavy white metal bars, redolent of sea swell.

In an otherwise bright picture, there was one big cloud: Internet access was poorly planned, which was bad news. In the pressrooms nothing had been planned, nor was it a routine feature in most hotels and cybercafes were few and far between. In my hotel the only international TV channels on offer were CNN and BBC World which did not cover the Games. All the other channels were broadcasting events with commentary in either Greek or German - talk about frustrating, watching the events taking place on the spot and not being able to understand a word of the commentary! A talk with the hotel manager got us EUROSPORT in English on the third day.
We ended up using the many computer terminals located inside the sports facilities, which were linked through Intranet to the Info 2004 data bank of the Olympic Games. Here we eventually found all that we needed - glossaries, the all-important start lists with the names of all the athletes participating in a given event and the individual bios of all the athletes.

With the opening of the Games just hours away, sensational news rocked the Olympic community: two star Greek athletes Costas Kenteris (200m Olympic champion) and Ekaterini Thanou (100m Olympic vice-champion) were reported to have had a motorcycle accident. They were due to take an anti-doping test and the news of the accident was greeted with suspicion. All of Greece was in turmoil. The IOC had declared war on the use of illegal drugs by some athletes to enhance their performance and had already started work. By the end of the Games several athletes had been disqualified.

My first day on the job was uneventful: I was on duty but was not called upon to work at all. On day two I was assigned to Markopoulos, the venue for the shooting and equestrian events. The site was located away from the city centre and it took a full hour and a half to get there. Once there, I reported to the Linguistic Services Venue Manager, LSVM for short, which was such a mouthful that we rebaptised them LVMH, something more familiar to us! In any event each venue had a designated person in charge of Linguistic Services, and another responsible for the press. Add to this the Team Leader, usuallya local, and you had three levels of decision-making, with variations on the theme from one venue to the other.

In Markopoulos we were not invited to watch the women's air pistol event. However I could not resist going into the stands, in the press section, to catch a glimpse of the action. The hushed silence before each round was extraordinary. The gold went to a young Ukrainian. It was fascinating to observe the elaborate computerized systems retransmitting everything live, the filming of each athlete's performance, the real-time results, the giant information screens and literally dozens of TV screens available to the press. I watched the medal ceremony, with young girls in national costume carrying the medals along with the traditional olive wreath. It was my first time at a medal award ceremony and I was very moved. The winners were from Ukraine, Serbia-Montenegro and Bulgaria, all speaking languages that we did not cover in our team. Volunteers climbed onto the podium and did consecutive interpreting, using Greek as the vehicular language. My first two days were over and I had yet to interpret a single word. But I already understood that in fact my job would involve a lot of waiting and preparation and very little actual interpreting.

The days were going by. The most popular sports are swimming, scheduled during the first week, and track and field during the second. My assignments and personal preferences enabled me to see Michael Phelps, Ian Thorpe and Pieter van den Hoogenband in action - the three winning champions who were accumulating medals, and Laure Manaudou who made France so proud. I was on duty for the synchronized diving event the evening that two Greek divers earned their first gold medal in an unexpected victory that restored Greece's honour. The music of Zorba filled the stadium and spectators broke out in song and dance. I was in the gymnastics hall when Carly Patterson won the overall gymnastics event, beating out Svetlana Khorkina of Russia for the gold. An amazing press conference followed, at which Carly, in response to a question from a journalist, started, in true American form, to peel off the list of her favourite moves at top speed, leaving me in the dust as I struggled to keep up in the French booth! She was called away for the anti-doping test first, leaving the stage for Svetlana to vent her spleen at her American rival and the judges, who had, she believed, scored her unfairly.

On another day, I went to the indoor track cycling venue where I had been assigned. I had done my prep work carefully the night before and again in the morning, not being in the least familiar with the sport.
My longest night was during the tennis tournaments. The date was already August 21. The match was for the bronze in the men's singles, which Fernando Gonzalez of Chile won after three hours and twenty-seven minutes on the court. Followed the women's singles final between Amélie Mauresmo and Justine Hénin, who scored a neat and swift victory. Amélie simply admitted that her opponent had played better than she had, and Justine displayed good press skills, being articulate in French and English. She was easy to interpret, speaking clearly and well. Then came the last match of the day, men's doubles final, with a Chilean team, again with Gonzalez, pitted against two Germans. Three hours and forty three minutes later the Chileans won, at the end of a riveting match packed with suspense. It was nearly four o'clock in the morning when the medal award ceremony and the press conference were finally over and we could get to bed, utterly exhausted.

The Heads of Mission met very early every morning in the Olympic Village, which was far away and hard to reach. A minivan picked us up at 6 am. The meetings were quick and covered any number of questions that arose, from logistics to laundry, where to get Kimchi for the Koreans, and the condom vending machine….

Still we managed to see Athens, especially as few events were scheduled in the morning and almost none in the early afternoon, as it was too hot. Interpreters met for dinner. We talked a lot by phone, exchanging tips on what to do and what not to do, ways to gain access, results and generally the highpoints of the day. We were living in a timeless bubble, where all that mattered was the next event or our next assignment, and much of our time was spent trying to keep abreast of the latest developments via TV. I was completely absorbed in this unique atmosphere, and was sad to realise that our time was coming to an end and that a return to a normal life was imminent.

What are my enduring impressions of the Games? That Greece did a top-notch job in organizing the events. Of course there were glitches, how could there not be in something of this magnitude, but at no time were the Games seriously disrupted. The opening ceremony earned unanimous praise; schedules were held to, facilities were both beautiful and functional, and whatever flaws there were remained invisible to the non-initiated. The venues were far apart, and much time was spent travelling, but all modes of transport ran efficiently.

To sum up, interpreting for the Olympic Games is a splendid way of taking part in one of the most media-centric events of our planet. But working here is really about waiting around, being thorough in one's prep work and carefully following events, and doing very little actual interpreting (except for our Greek and Chinese colleagues, who were in high demand as Greek was one of the official languages, and China was cleaning up with medals).

The language issue continues to be a real one, given the number of languages spoken by athletes from all over the world. The Olympic Games have two official languages, French and English, and the host country's language, Greek in this case, was the third. In reality not all press conferences were translated into the three languages, for lack of equipment to do simultaneous interpreting. Consecutive was too time-consuming and English often ended being the default language. What will become of French in the future? It is a question on many people's minds.

Today, "the office" (aka swimming pool), Calatrava, Athoc, gold medals, antidoping testing, Eurosport, the MPC and OAKA are stored away in the memory bank. But what wonderful memories to have and to hold…until 2008, 2012 and beyond!

Martine BONADONA
Member of Calliope in France


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