FEAST OR FAMINE

In 1986 in Australia, I ran the Adelaide 10-kilometre fun run in a pink T-shirt. I’m wearing the pink T-shirt when I arrive in Berlin a month afterwards to visit my relatives. Today in 2024, over 38 years later, in Paris, France, I’m in a 10-kilometre fun run,  Odyssea , the 22nd  annual event to raise money for breast cancer research. The number of participants in the two-day event was more than 45,000 and a record.  1986 Berlin - with my pink Adelaide 10 km pink T-shirt  MARTINA NICOLLS MartinaNicollsWebsite    I    Rainy Day Healing    I    Martinasblogs    I    Publications    I    Facebook    I    Paris Website    I    Paris blogs    I   Animal Website    I   Flower Website   I   Global Gentlemanliness SUBSCRIBE TO MARTINA NICOLLS FOR NEWS AND UPDATES  Martina Nicolls is an Australian author and...

I feel like Dora the Explorer …   I’ve received my official Badge for volunteering at the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics. ‘Paris2024’ and its Official Partners have awarded the volunteers of the Olympics and Paralympics with a  J’ai fait les Jeux  (I was in the Games) Open Badge in recognition of their personal contribution to the success of the Games.   The email states that the Badge validates that we ‘used and developed organizational, interpersonal, and communication skills’ and that it vouches for the volunteers’ behaviour and attitude.   The French Government has a service that enables the Open Badge to be used to map personal skills to generate a curriculum vitae – the equivalent of a ‘Skills Passport.’ It is a digital file in which skills and achievements developed informally are recorded, which may assist volunteers who are seeking employment (in France and beyond) to have their skills recognized.   The Open Badge is an international program r...

I did not volunteer to be a volunteer when I was nine years old. My mother made me do it, but I’ve been volunteering happily ever since. The culmination was being a full-time volunteer in the Press Operations Team at the Grand Palais during the Paralympics taekwondo, triathlon, and wheelchair fencing events.    Of the approximate 300,000 applicants to volunteer at the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, I am grateful to be part of the 45,000 selected. I am grateful for the all the work and support of the Volunteer Committee and team. The process was long but easy, with regular emails, manuals, videos, podcasts, and both online and venue training. During the Games, everyone in the Press Operations Team were the best – ever – in making it an enjoyable and memorable experience.    It takes a multitude of teams to run an event on this scale, so thanks to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), ticketing, helpdesk, ...

Legendary fictional peacekeeper Jedi Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, of the  Star Wars  film series, visited the Grand Palais to see the wheelchair fencing at the Paris 2024 Paralympics.    Of the three disciplines of fencing – sabre, foil, and epée – Friday 6 September was dedicated to the Epée category of sword fencing. The epée is not really Obi-Wan’s weapon of strength. He prefers the sabre.   In fact, Obi-Wan’s expertise is the lightsabre, a rigid metal base with a luminescent laser sword or “energy blade” about 91 centimetres long. The sabre at the Olympics and Paralympics is flexible and short at 105 cm long, and the epée is rigid and 110 cm long.    Real fencing swords do not have a laser. In the  Star Wars  universe, there are blue and green sabres, as well as other colours. The lightsabre can cut, burn, and melt through substances, which of course the real sabre cannot do. The most distinct aspect of the lightsabre is its hum. When it hits ...

  Para Taekwondo competitions came to a close at the Grand Palais venue at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. Judges and officials lined up for group photos to mark a memorable journey for all.    Four of us in the Press Tribune team wrapped up the day on Saturday 31 August inside the Taekwondo arena and headed outside to the Pont Alexandre III, the bridge over the Seine near the Grand Palais, to contribute to the preparations for the Para Triathlon.    A selfie sealed the fun we had volunteering in the Press Box. We’re ready for next week at the Paralympics with the Para Triathlons and wheelchair fencing.  MARTINA NICOLLS MartinaNicollsWebsite    I    Rainy Day Healing    I    Martinasblogs    I    Publications    I    Facebook    I    Paris Website    I    Paris blogs    I   Animal Website    I   Flower Websit...

  I'm volunteering at the Paris 2024 Paralympics in the venue, the Grand Palais - the Grand Palace. The Grand Palais hosted men’s and women’s taekwondo competitions on 29 August on the first day of the Paris 2024 Paralympics and the discipline will continue until Saturday 31 August. Taekwondo is a martial art in which competitors aim to strike their opponent with their foot.   Competitors wear a white  dobok  uniform with a tied belt and a padded vest called a  hogu  to protect their chest. They also wear a padded helmet. They do not wear shoes – only socks.    The aim is to kick the opponent on the padded vest with the foot. The kick is a light touch. Points are scored depending upon where the contact was made – electronic sensors count the number of contacts. One point is given for contact to the body or head; two points for a jumping touch to the body or head; and three points for jumping kick to the head. Excessive contact is not allowed and c...

  The Paris 2024 Paralympics opening ceremony will take place on 28 August, followed by 11 days of competition to 8 September.  A total of 4,400 Paralympic athletes will take part in 22 sports in 549 events in 18 competition venues across France.   Unlike the part-time, on-call, intermittent volunteer work that I had during the Olympics, I’ll be working full-time, frontline, and the weekends for the Paralympics at the Grand Palais venue – the Grand Palace.    The Grand Palais will host three disciplines, two inside: 1) Para Taekwondo and 2) Wheelchair Fencing, with one outside: 3) Para Triathlon, which begins and ends on the bridge outside the Grand Palais. I will have access to all three events.    There will be 1,317 volunteers of 86 nationalities – 703 of them will work inside the Grand Palais, 215 will work outside, and 399 (including me) will be inside and outside. On Monday 26 August the volunteers working at the Grand Palais had venue train...