SA volunteer is shooting for his own goal

Cape Town man has his sights, and camera, set on the Olympics

WHILE the world’s best athletes are competing f or medals and honour at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, a South African volunteer at the event has set himself a challenge too.

Cape Town’s Martin van Staden (pictured) wants to attend at least 50 Olympic Games events before the final curtain on August 21. And he is publishing photographs of his experience on his Instagram account, @martycam.

“The game I am playing with my mates is the goal to be at 50 or more events (for a) gold medal performance, 40plus (wins) silver and 30-plus (wins) bronze. I only post one photo for each event and currently am sitting on 19 events after five days,” he said.

Van Staden’s account already reflects a host of sporting events as he is Red Bull South Africa’s national events manager, and for merly the Cape Town marketing manager for the 2010 Fifa World Cup Organising Committee South Africa.

This is not Van Staden’s first Olympic Games, however.

He was part of the South African hockey management support team at the Olympic Games in London in 2012, and a volunteer in Athens in 2004.

Van Staden describes himself on his Instagram account as a “passionate event manager and wannabe photographer”. His Olympic Games photos show how close he is to the action – including getting to snap big-name tennis players like Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams in action.

Van Staden’s pictures also include scenes from gymnastics, synchronised diving, hockey, cycling, equestrian and volleyball matches.

“I am super passionate about the Olympic Games and my life goal has always been to bring the games to Africa one day, hopefully South Africa of course. The way I could get involved and learn about the beast that is the Olympics was to volunteer at the Games,” he said.

“It’s only five days into the Games but I have learnt so much about what works and what doesn’t work as both a spectator and being in the workforce.”

The highlight for Van Staden was seeing Olympic medal-winner swimmer Chad le Clos in action. His Instagram account also boasts a photograph of him on the same flight as the Le Clos family en route to Rio de Janeiro, the coastal city where the Games are being held in Brazil.

“So far my highlights have been (the) opening ceremony, seeing Chad win silver, seeing both the Williams sisters and Djokovic lose to the underdogs and, surprisingly, the indoor volleyball was an incredible spectator experience,” Van Staden said. And lowlights? “Definitely seeing (US swimmer Michael) Phelps beat Chad in the 200m butterfly. I was sitting next to his brothers during the race and we were all gutted at the end. What an incredible family.

“Just as Phelps responded after his ‘disappointment’ in London 2012, it will be interesting to see Chad’s next move as he looks towards Tokyo 2020.”

Van Staden’s focus this weekend will be on golf, as he has “been allocated to the press operations team at the golf venue”.

He said he would “be shouting for the South African pair over the next four days.

“It has been super-interesting sitting in the press conferences with some big-name golfers and hearing their Olympic experience,” Van Staden added.

Behind the scenes, he had also been impressed with “how Americans run the TV production side of things”.

“They have special camera golf carts that look like Transformers (robots able to change into different objects), and a camera that flies through the air that must be about 300m long,” he revealed.