Islander lives out Olympic dreams with volunteer post that links culture and sport
Sky blue may not be Jon Suk’s favourite colour, but he didn’t dare complain when he received his official Olympic volunteer uniform last week.
After a nearly four-year wait, the colour of his jacket was the last thing on his mind.
“I’m starting to feel a little excited,” he said, a few days before his month-long stint as a volunteer with the National Olympic Committee (NOC) began this past weekend. “Things are starting to happen.”
Suk, who also volunteers as a member of the island’s Parks and Recreation Commission, signed up because of a life-long love of sports and a desire to get a close-up look at the athletes and events of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
He never really knew what to expect, but he certainly hasn’t been disappointed.
That’s because volunteering at the Games has given him the chance to experience not one but two Olympic dreams.
On the one hand is the opportunity to reconnect with his ancestral heritage as an official translator for the 100-plus athletes, coaches, training staff and dignitaries representing Team Korea at the Games.
As a translator, Suk will be responsible for ensuring that the Korean visitors have as smooth an experience as possible while in Canada. He’s among 900 volunteers from across the country and around the world who have been selected to take part in the Olympic experience.
For Suk, who moved to the Vancouver-area from Korea with his parents when he was two years old, the opportunity to work with the team is a chance to reconnect his family’s heritage with his everyday identity.
To act as a Canadian representative to athletes and staff, many of whom will be visiting the country for the first time, he said, is a tremendous honour.
Luckily, his Korean is still in pretty good shape.
And if that wasn’t enough of a prize in itself, it turns out Suk’s Korean connection include an added benefit that promises to push his Olympic experience into a league of its own.
While Suk will get a close-up look at many of the events and venues where Korean athletes compete, he’s really looking forward to spending time at the Richmond Olympic Oval, where Korea’s world-class speed skaters are expected to capture some serious hardware.
Suk takes long-track speed skating very seriously and he’s probably among the few island residents who’ve ever laced up a pair of the long-bladed skates.
“I’m going to be star struck, but I have to take my role quite seriously,” he said. “If the athletes engage [me in conversation], I’d be happy to talk, but I think they’ll have other things on their mind.”
Suk has already spent a good deal of time cutting up the ice at the Olympic venue as part of his regular training with the Richmond Rockets, a speed skating club that competes throughout North America.
Despite living on Salt Spring Island, Suk has maintained a solid training regimen and somehow been able to keep on practising his favourite sport.
“It’s been mind-bogglingly difficult,” he said.
While ice-time is usually clocked in Saanich or the Lower Mainland, Suk spends most of his island time working on fitness and strength.
Because of his job as a self-employed information technology specialist, Suk gets to spend plenty of time with clients in the Lower Mainland, where speed-skating opportunities abound. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been tempted to flood his yard when the temperature dips below freezing.
It doesn’t take long to realize that Suk’s love of the sport runs pretty deep. Our discussion of his Olympic dreams turns into a detailed low-down on wind resistance and the impact of Richmond’s lower elevation on prospective skating times.
“Don’t expect any world records,” Suk suggests, adding that speed-skating records just aren’t broken at sea-level competitions due to the relatively high air pressure.
It’s a technicality that Suk doesn’t expect will get in the way of his enjoyment of the Games.
As long as he’s got his official blue uniform and volunteer access pass, slower ice times should be no problem at all.
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