London, Vancouver, and PyeongChang Olympics

Abstract

Olympic volunteers represent sports volunteers who undertake volunteer opportunity that is episodic, high profile and at a global mega-event. While the existing literature has explored event volunteer motivation, the focus has been, with few exceptions, on national or local events. The literature examining Olympic volunteers gravitates to English speaking countries or where volunteering has had a long history. In this research we examine volunteer motivations at the 2018 Olympics at PyeongChang, South Korea, where volunteering does not have a long history. Using a similar instrument (i.e., SEVMS) that was used by other scholars investigating Olympic volunteers, this research facilitates comparison between the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in PyeongChang in 2018, with those in the 2010 Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Our analyses find some significant differences in why individuals choose to volunteer that may be attributed to the differences in demographics and venues.