Pyeong Chang third straight Olympics for volunteer
PyeongChang marks the third straight time West Vancouverite will help at Winter Games
Who, wondered Carl XVI Gustaf, looked after Jenny Hippel’s children in West Vancouver while she volunteered at the Sochi Olympics in Russia in 2014?
He wondered in Swedish, of course, being the King of Sweden.
“There was King Carl and Queen Silvia,” Hippel said.
“I had a little chat with them, the two of them and myself. It was such an honour, and what was really neat was they have grandchildren just a little older than my kids and King Carl asked who was looking after them.”
Meeting royalty, just another Olympic memory.
Hippel was volunteering at her second Winter Games at Sochi 2014, attached to Team Sweden, and her three children ranged in age from eight months to eight years at the time.
“The king said: ‘Who is in control while you’re gone?,’” she said. “I told him I don’t have a whole team like he probably does, but that I do have a loving family who help out.”
The 44-year-old director of West Vancouver Community Centres Society leaves in a couple of weeks for PyeongChang, South Korea, for the 2018 Winter Games and Paralympics, which begin Feb. 9.
The preparation approaches the scale of a space launch, and that’s not including the 18 months of training for her volunteer role ahead of the Games.
“I spend many months prepping for my family, such as making Valentine’s Day cards in December, lining up birthday gifts for potential birthday parties that might arise, meticulously planning my kids’ activities to ease the burden on my husband,” Hippel said.
Her mom moves in, her dad chauffeurs the kids, now aged four, 10 and 12.
“I have a husband, Paul, who is fully supportive of the adventures I do,” she said. “He steps up his game. And there is an army of volunteers to keep my family afloat during mom’s absence.”
Her role for the Olympics and Paralympics is national committee assistant for Team Sweden. It’s a jack-of-all-trades endeavour.
In Sochi, for instance, she did a lot of driving people around, even though she can’t read or speak Russian (she learned a few words, such as trunk and hood so she’d understand at least some of the guards’ instructions while she went through security).
Hippel is one of 22,400 volunteers recruited out of more than 70,000 applicants to work in seven service areas (customer service, medical services, media, etc.) in PyeongChang.
“I arrive early to complete additional in-person training, driver’s training, and familiarize myself with the different venues and Olympic Villages,” Hippel said.
“No task is too great or too small and everything is important.”
Her memories go on and on: Legendary hockey player Hayley
Wickenheiser hand-delivering Canadian beef jerky sent by a common acquaintance in Sochi; delivering a cake to the Team Sweden locker-room and joining (in Swedish) in the singing of Happy Birthday for hockey player Jimmie Ericsson; watching events with Swedish men’s figure skater Alexander Majorov; cheering with the family of a gold medal-winning biathlete as she crossed the finish line.
That Hippel was born in Sweden and is fluent in the little-spoken language is probably why she’s been assigned to Sweden ever since the Vancouver Games in 2010. But she was raised in Vancouver, and makes sure to bring a bag of Maple Leaf lapel pins to hand out.
“I go to help Team Sweden,” she said. “But I go as a Canadian and represent Canada with pride.” There is no pay for volunteers. In fact, there are out-of-pocket expenses such as airfare and, for many, meals.
It attracts all kinds of people. “The quality of volunteers you get at the Olympics is amazing,” Hippel said. “You can get a CEO, an office worker — one volunteer I met discovered elements on the periodic table.
“These are the people you’re working alongside and no one cares if they’re a truck driver or the president of a corporation. We’re all in the same uniform, and we’re there to get a job done.”