Perfection in Paris

In the second of our two-part series on language services for the Olympics and Paralympics, Maha El-Metwally talks to two of the key people working on this year's Olympic Games

Who are the people who ensure communication for the biggest international sporting event in the world?
I asked chief interpreter Alexandre Ponomarev and language services manager Nathalie Greff-Santamaria about their work on the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Alexandre, what is your background, and what is the main role of a chief interpreter for these games?
I've been a consulting interpreter for over 30 years, working both as a freelancer and as a staff interpreter. I've interpreted for 10 Olympic Games – and been the chief interpreter for the past five.

It's a role that begins long before the games start – typically about two years before. I'm involved in budgeting and operational planning, including logistics, travel, accommodation and accreditation, all in collaboration with the relevant areas of the Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (OCOG). I'm also responsible for recruiting and contracting interpreters during this pre-games period. Once the games begin, I manage a team of professional interpreters, which often includes language volunteers who are either recent graduates from interpreting schools or students of interpretation.

I oversee their daily assignments, ensuring they have everything they need, from venue access passes to last-minute transportation. The goal is to keep everything running smoothly, so that the interpreters can focus on their job.

How do you put together the programme for each day?
Organising the daily programme is more of an art than a science. As chief interpreter, you first need to know your team inside and out – including their language combinations, their expertise in specific sports, and even whether their accent is suitable for a particular occasion (for instance, Brazilian Portuguese versus continental Portuguese, or Castilian Spanish versus Latin American Spanish).

You also need to manage the interpreters' workloads carefully, ensuring that their hours are balanced fairly. Alongside that, you have to accommodate people's preferences and circumstances – some interpreters prefer morning shifts, others excel in late-night sessions, and some have family or other commitments. And above all, you need to handle this process with a smile, keeping morale high and ensuring your team is motivated and happy.

How did this year's Olympics differ from ones in previous years?
When I first started working at the Olympics, the teams were much larger, and we would travel in groups to each venue. With the introduction of remote interpretation in Tokyo 2021, things have become far more efficient. For the first time in history, we provided remote simultaneous interpretation for 100 per cent of the venues. Beijing 2022 and Paris 2024 followed the same model, so there haven't been many changes on that front.

Every Olympics is unique in its own way, but one major difference this time was that the team was recruited through a bidding process, rather than personally selected by me. This had a ripple effect on several aspects, but we managed to navigate these changes successfully. In other respects, many of the underlying principles remained consistent, with only minor adjustments. We covered the same range of events, and the team of professional interpreters delivered outstanding work.

Ultimately, we're there to help different Olympic stakeholders communicate and, in doing so, we bridge cultures, languages and mindsets

Paris 2024 was truly spectacular – the iconic venues, the perfect weather and the ideal conditions for both athletes and spectators all contributed to a fantastic atmosphere.

You have several irons in the fire. What makes the Olympics so appealing to you?
The Olympics is the greatest sporting event in the world, and being a part of it brings me immense satisfaction. Knowing that we play a small role in making everything run as close to perfection as possible is incredibly fulfilling. Ultimately, we're there to help different Olympic stakeholders communicate and, in doing so, we bridge cultures, languages and mindsets. That's what makes it all worthwhile.

Nathalie, what is your background, and what did being language services manager involve?
I am a conference interpreter, literary translator and multilingual event organiser. I'm originally from France, and I started organising multilingual events when I was training as a conference interpreter in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

I applied for this role knowing that I had a lot of experience in some areas and also a lot that I could learn and grow into – while working in sports, a sector I love. I started as language services manager a year and a half before either of the games began.

By that stage, many decisions had been made already - for instance, the use of remote interpretation and the games we were to cover – so in the very beginning it was all about catching up to understand the scope of our mission, while there was also quite a lot of urgent day-to-day work as well.

As language services manager, my responsibilities were to enable the athletes, the accredited media, the national and international Olympic and Paralympic committees and the Paris 2024 stakeholders to communicate in the 11 official Olympic and six official Paralympic languages – not all the time, but during specific meetings. In this case, that added up to more than 450 meetings, which were mostly interpreted in remote simultaneous modality.

I see a lot of similarities between preparing as interpreters and preparing as athletes

I sometimes compare this role to being the conductor of an orchestra. It involves ensuring that everyone internally (within our language services) and externally (with other Paris 2024 departments but also with our providers) can communicate, understand one another, and appreciate how much the smallest decision can affect others.
How did you all work together, and how did you prepare for this quite gruelling assignment?

I had the support of great colleagues, and everyone in our team was a trained conference interpreter – even the two interns who were concluding their master's degrees. Being conference interpreters ourselves, we already knew what was good practice – we didn't have to learn this, which is what happens when the language service team isn't composed of trained linguists.

That was why we could think better and faster and advocate for good practices. For instance, I remember my first meeting with Alexandre when he started explaining to me the difference between simultaneous and consecutive interpreting...we were able to skip this stage in our collaboration and go straight to the next point! And when it came to the games themselves, any of us with the right language combination could jump into a booth and be assigned by Alexandre (who is also assigning himself) at very short notice – which saved the day several times. We also knew how to request the materials we needed (and not give up till we got them) and how to operate in last-minute situations when a new interpreter colleague arrived with a delegation.

I see a lot of similarities between preparing as interpreters and preparing as athletes! Eating well, sleeping enough, working out, researching a lot, being fully committed to the event's success, listening to others, making fast and informed decisions when needed, challenging oneself to do better...they really do have a lot of parallels.

Where do you see this milestone in your career potentially taking you?
I have accumulated so much knowledge: partly about the games structure, of course, but also about the variety of language services in the world, and about the French market, especially the public one. I would like to keep building on those skills. I feel it is time for me to settle a bit and to refocus on my conference interpreting career.

What are your top tips for linguists who would like to provide their language services to future games?
The most important thing in some ways is to have a real, intense interest in sports, because you will have to understand the rules and subtleties of more than 40 sports and 60 disciplines – and you'll also need background knowledge about the athletes. In terms of interpreting specifically, start interpreting for sports events as soon as you can. If you apply for, say, interpreting at the summer games, you need to point to solid experience in the field already.

And if and when you do start interpreting for the Olympics and/or Paralympics, be prepared for a constantly changing schedule, because the need for your language changes every time someone wins a competition or the weather isn't cooperating so that a competition is postponed. You'll have little to no notice before going into a booth!

So team spirit and resilience are as important as your interpreting skills. This truly is an event like no other.