It's all about the Games!: 2010 Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games volunteers

Despite volunteers being essential for the success of many mega sport events, there is little knownabout what motivates them to volunteer at such events. This study aims to address this gap. Thisarticle commences by developing Getz’s event portfolio into a new expanded sport event typology.It continues by presenting the results to three key questions: (1) Who is volunteering? (2) What aretheir motivations for volunteering, and (3) What variables are most likely to be related to their intentionto volunteer after the event. The study used an adaptation of the Special Event VolunteerMotivation Scale on volunteers at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Aprincipal components analysis of the 36 motivation items identified six factors that accounted for58.3% of the variance, with the main factor entitled “All about the Games.” A regression analysisconducted to identify those variables most likely to indicate an intention to volunteer more after theGames demonstrated that those who could see an advantage in more volunteering pregames weremost likely to intend to increase their level of volunteering postgames. People with previous volunteeringexperience in events, sport, or community groups were less likely to indicate they wouldvolunteer more after the event. The results and recommendations have implications for megamultisportevent organizing committees not just in respect of event delivery but in terms of a posteventvolunteer legacy.