December 5, 2021 | Source: FIH On International Volunteer Day, we celebrate people from across the globe who selflessly give their service in the administration and promotion of hockey. from board members and committee chairs to coaches and umpires; from admin workers, to media personnel – all the people listed below have gone above and beyond to make our sport the very best experience it can be for all participants. To honour these hard-working and committed individuals, FIH is presenting an FIH International Volunteer Day award, recognising the invaluable contribution of each nominee. All the recipients of the award have been nominated by their continental federation. In addition, in this year of Olympic Games and the Men’s Junior World Cup we are paying a special tribute to the volunteers who made the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 a roaring success, despite all the unprecedented challenges posed by a global pandemic. Emphasising what an incredible, albeit different, experience it was to be a volunteer at this year’s Olympic Games, are the words of Bongekile Motsa, who is originally from Eswatini but has been living in Tokyo since a couple of years. “One of my greatest highlights was meeting and making acquaintances with people from diversified backgrounds on a daily basis,” she said. “My team (BIO) was so supportive and was honestly the best team I had seen at the Olympics Broadcasting Unit (biased). I still hang out with the members of my team to this day! Working across the two hockey fields brought so much thrill because I could watch both men and ladies’ games as I carried my duties, which included being in close proximity with the athletes.” In the video clips, we hear from Michiko Matsuda, who has been volunteering ever since she moved from Japan to Australia to study. She spent 10 years in Australia working and playing hockey and now, after a hugely impressive ‘performance’ as a volunteer at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, Michiko is a permanent volunteer with the Japanese Hockey Association. She combines volunteering with a full-time job in finance. ‘I was Team Liaison volunteer but then I became Team Liaison Manager so I was in charge of managing 40 Team Liaison volunteers. My aim was to get everyone to work as a team but I also wanted to help the volunteers achieve their own dreams.’ Michiko also galvinised the team of volunteers throughout the stadium into cheering each team as they took to the pitch using each nation’s favourite chant. And so, when Australia stepped onto the pitch they were greeted with the familiar sound of ‘Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi’! The second video introduces Yoko Aoshima who was a member of the team who greeted international delegates as they visited the Oi Hockey Stadium. ‘[Covid] meant it was a hard time at the start of the Olympic Games with a lot of nervousness in the local population. But within three days people were waving and asking about the Games. That is the power of sport. People were realising what the athletes had been through and there was a change in the atmosphere and people knew this was the right thing.’ ‘I was always a big fan of the Olympics and this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with the Olympics coming to Tokyo and I didn’t want to miss it.’ Four months on and Yoko is part of a WhatsApp group with many other volunteers and they are planning a reunion event. She was also the creative force behind the volunteers ‘pin badge’. While there were few opportunities to swap these in Tokyo, Yoko hopes to take her volunteering skills and her pin badges to Paris 2024. Bruce Danbury of Great Britain is a well-known character pitch-side at hockey events, where – over the course if three Olympic Games and countless other international and national matches – he works as Field of Play Manager. But, as he explains, the Tokyo Games were unlike anything he had experienced before. ‘I assumed until the last minute I wouldn’t be at Tokyo, but I was lucky enough to be one of three international volunteers working on a sports specific role at the hockey venue. ‘The stadium was just fantastic, easy access, huge changing rooms, two fantastic pitches. The standard of play by both athletes and officials was the best I’ve ever seen. I can’t imagine what it is like to be an athlete at that level, but watching them and realising the journey they had been on leading up to the Games but the level of emotion for both winners and losers was so intense. ‘Some of that fortnight was really lonely,’ says Bruce. ‘You ate by yourself, you jumped on a bus, you stayed in a bubble. There were lots of people but we were all isolated. But on the other hand, everyone was so friendly, so helpful and all the other volunteers were also super helpful. The highs were really high, and the lows were just a bit lonely.’ Yoko, Michiko, Bongekile and Bruce are just four shining examples from the thousands of people who give their time to volunteer within our sport. Listed below are volunteers from the five continental federations and the awards and recognition they are receiving is not solely for these people but in honour of volunteers everywhere. FIH International Volunteer Day award winners European Hockey Federation In the image (L to R): Björn Isberg, Barbara Morgan, Doctor Katja Van Oostveldt and Professor Dr. Udo Rolle The EHF ran an astonishing 25 EuroHockey events during 2021, working through the various Covid restrictions to bring hockey in an entertaining but safe manner to athletes across the continent. This would not have been possible without the thoughtful work of the EHF Covid Panel – Dr Katja Van Oostveldt (BEL), Professor Dr. Udo Rolle (GER), Björn Isberg (SWE), Sylvie Petitjean (FRA) and Barbara Morgan (SCO). In the image (on the left): Sylvie Petitjean In a statement from the EHF, special mention goes to Dr Katja Van Oostveldt (BEL) and Professor
