Priced out of Paris: Cornish volunteer for Olympics could pull out over cost of accommodation

Volunteers who’ve put themselves forward to help with the organisation of the Paris Olympics say they may have to pull out because there’s simply nowhere for them to stay.

Carol Truscott, who lives in St Austell, Cornwall, has been given time off her work as a bus driver to work for 11 days at the games.

However she says since being accepted for the games she’s had no help finding accommodation and other volunteers she’s spoken to are facing the same issue.

Ms Truscott said: “It’s just way too expensive, so I'm really struggling, and if I can't find anywhere safe to stay from the July 24 until August 4, I can see me not being able to go”

“I'll be absolutely gutted. All that online training, all that planning, all gone, just wasted. Then they're going to have to try and replace me in Paris.”

Carol has been selected to work at the Roland Garcia Stadium helping people watching tennis and boxing events.

She plans to be part of the event service team helping people find their seats, scanning tickets and getting any lost children back to their parents.

Ms Truscott said: “I love helping people. I love it, and without volunteers, how can the events go ahead? I love meeting people as well.

“It is only when you get your actual schedule then you can start to make plans and the biggest problem now is obviously finding somewhere safe to live for 11 nights out in Paris.

“I thought it would be just like the European Championships in Glasgow where I went into student accommodation. Brilliant, ideal location. I didn't realise that it would be an issue trying to get student accommodation in Paris.”

Carol says she thinks the Olympic organisers should be doing more to support volunteers.

She said: “I don't think the French government has done enough to look at this. unless you want to pay a ridiculous amount of money and go into hotels, It just seems wrong.

“When you go over there to do a voluntary job the hotels and businesses just want to make money out of you.”

Even at this late stage Carol is now hoping someone will hear her concerns and be able to help her find some accommodation: “My only hope is by doing this interview that there's somebody out there that will know someone in Paris, or nearby.

"I don't mind sleeping on the floor as long as I've got a roof over my head and like a shower it's just somewhere where I can go and I can be safe.”

“I want to make sure everybody that goes to the Olympics has an amazing time. I want to be wide awake with a smiley face. So obviously, you know, I've got to sleep somewhere.”

For Carol this was third time lucky, she was selected to go to Rio but some of her events were cancelled because of safety issues, then she was again selected for Tokyo but international volunteers couldn’t go because of Covid rules.

She said: “If I can’t find somewhere to stay I probably won't go and I’ll be very sad. It makes it worse because this is the third time I've tried to get to the Olympics.

"It's really weird that they're going to lose a volunteer because of the fact that there's no accommodation.

"I will not be the only volunteer here that will not make it to Paris.”