It’s a safe assumption to say that Port Macquarie, NSW, couple Barb and Laurie Smith are Olympic volunteer fanatics, with the pair attending every Games for decades bar one.
“We are passionate about the Games as it’s something that can bring the world’s people together,” says Barb.
The couple’s life-long love affair with all sports began in their youth with Laurie a keen swimmer, football, soccer and rugby player. Meanwhile Barb’s passion for athletics and netball provided a common interest for the pair, who have been together for 40 years.
REMEMBERING SYDNEY 2000
“I went to the Mexico City Olympics in ’68 as a spectator and I was a young and impressionable 20-year-old who was passionate about sport and seeing the world’s best athletes,” says Laurie.
They met in the early ’80s and, explains Laurie, it didn’t take much to convince his new wife to honeymoon at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984.
They attended every Olympics as spectators until Sydney 2000, when they decided to volunteer in the lead-up to and during the Games. Since then Barb and Laurie have volunteered in the Olympic Village at every Games, except for Tokyo in 2021 in the aftermath of the pandemic.
LIFE AS AN OLYMPIC VOLUNTEER
Olympic volunteers are the lifeblood of the Games and no job is a problem. “It could be as small as getting clean towels for an athlete,” explains Barb, 68.
The Olympics can also be centrestage for protests or participants making life-changing decisions. “They might say they want to defect, but that’s our worst nightmare!” she laughs.
Laurie, 76, witnessed the massacre that killed 12 competitors from Israel and Germany at Munich in 1972 and still remembers the horrors clearly. “It still emotionally affects me because I’m probably one of the few people who’s still alive in the world today who was in the stadium for that ceremony,” says the former professional swimming coach.
But most of their memories are happy ones. Over the years, Barb and Laurie have also gathered a large collection of memorabilia, much of which they’ve given away to schools and groups.
And while they’ve loved every Olympics, they agree Sydney 2000 was hands-down the best they’ve attended. And despite not getting paid for volunteering, the pair say there are definitely perks, like meeting the Prince and Princess of Wales, William and Kate, in London in 2012.
“The icing on the cake was that experience,” recalls Barb. “Kate talked to me about their upcoming trip to Australia and how much she was looking forward to it.”
