When she was four years old, World Languages and Cultures Teacher Tamara Smith watched the 1976 Montreal Olympics on TV, and it altered the course of her life.

“I saw the Soviet pair skaters clearly do a performance that would earn them the gold, and when they got off the ice, they put on their jackets that said CCCP, but on our TV screen in the United States, it said USSR,” Smith said. “That was the day that my parents explained to me that there was more than one language in the world.”

That moment, Smith said, is what ignited her passion for languages.

“I kind of jumped up on the couch and pretended I was on the podium and declared that I was going to learn Russian,” she said. “I was going to learn languages.”

From then on, Smith’s initial interest in languages evolved into a lifelong pursuit of multilingualism. She is now fluent in English, French, Spanish, Italian and Russian.

That day not only sparked her passion for learning languages but also solidified her love for the Olympic Games. So, 22 years later, when Smith discovered that the 2014 Winter Olympics would be held in Sochi, Russia while she was living in Moscow, she applied to volunteer, working as an assistant to Team France.

However, Smith said her recent volunteer role at the 2024 Paris Olympics was a markedly different experience. This year, she was assigned to a small group of assistants that aided the heads of all the Olympic teams rather than solely one team — a role she said she was selected for in large part due to her multilingual abilities.

“Each of us spoke at least three languages, and a few of us spoke four or more, and that was really important because you were constantly switching language,” Smith said. “When we were greeting the heads of each delegation, we needed to be able to instantly recognize who was walking in the door, what country they were from and what language they spoke, so we could greet them in their language.”

Because her role during this year’s Games wasn’t focused on a specific team, Smith said her day-to-day responsibilities “changed as the needs of people changed.”

“At the beginning, it was getting things ready,” she said. “Then, it morphed into helping people actually get settled because, when you think about it, it’s a mini city of 14,000 people that all of a sudden take up residence within a two-week period, and there’s a lot to iron out.”

However, Smith said one constant in her routine was assisting with morning meetings for the heads of every country’s Olympic delegation.

“I had such a privilege of being able to be a part of hearing what was going on in those meetings,” Smith said. “I gained such a deeper understanding of just how closely linked the Olympic movement is with the larger United Nations goals of human rights and sustainability.”

In addition, Smith said she participated in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Truce Mural.

“After Thomas Bach [the International Olympic Committee president] spoke to the athletes, and the head of Paris 2024 spoke, the head of the refugee team spoke, and then I joined them and invited athletes from the refugee team, Israel, Palestine, the independent Russian athletes and an Ukrainian athlete to accompany me to the mural,” Smith said. “I gave them all pens, and they all signed the Olympic Truce at the same time.”

While Smith met numerous famous athletes at the Games, including U.S. women’s rugby player Ilona Maher, she said the athletes who left the biggest impressions on her were lesser-known.

“Oftentimes, those were the athletes from smaller delegations who I got to help when they first arrived,” Smith said. “For many of them, the whole Olympic experience was just about being a part of it, and they didn’t necessarily think they were going to have a chance at winning medals.”

Furthermore, Smith’s duties included organizing medal boxes for athletes, a task she said often left her in awe.

“I would have little pinch me moments, like when I was preparing all the medal boxes for the U.S. women’s rugby team or the women’s basketball or gymnastics or soccer, or when I was getting things ready for athletes who had turned a page in history by winning their country’s first medal, like from St. Lucia or from Dominica,” Smith said.

Moreover, Smith said her role required her to be on constant alert for ways to assist.

“You were expected to just always be on the lookout of how you could help, so if I heard someone struggling with a language barrier…we would all pop over and say, ‘Hey, can I help?’” Smith said. “Nine times out of 10, you could, and that was a big part of the experience.”

Smith said this spirit of helping others extended beyond the athletes village.

“Once you put on your uniform, you were on, so when I would be commuting to the village or even going back home at night, many, many times, people would come up to me needing something, and you just would drop everything if you could, and escort them and help them,” Smith said.

Because her volunteer role lasted five and a half weeks with a 4:45 a.m. wake-up time and only five days off, Smith said it was challenging to find time for herself while “constantly being focused on others.”

“Around day 30, I got really tired because they were such early mornings, and then there was so much adrenaline every day,” Smith said. “It was such a sensory-laden experience that, all of a sudden, I just was exhausted, but I knew that I wanted to just cherish every moment because I knew it would be over so quickly.”

Despite the intensity of her role, Smith said her experience was deeply enriching.

“The entire time that I was there, I was learning,” Smith said. “I felt like a student on fire because every little experience was something that I knew was deepening my understanding of the Olympic movement, and because, in French IV, we do an actual unit on Olympism and the power of an idea to change the world, seeing how that actually plays out in such a personal way made me so excited to come back and teach that unit this year.”

Particularly, Smith said it was “incredible” to share her students’ cherished cultural values — those they had highlighted in their school projects about their heritage — with the heads of states from those countries, as she observed a clear “reaction of hope and appreciation.”

Ultimately, Smith said her time at the Olympics uncovered the often-overlooked essence of the Games.

“What you see on TV is just the tip of the iceberg,” Smith said. “The Olympics are about so much more that goes unseen under the surface. It’s incredibly inspirational.”

This story was originally published on The Standard on September 7, 2024.