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VOLLEYBALL GAMES
An interview with London 2012 Volleyball Manager, Bob Clarke by Tim Griffiths
BOB CLARKE WAS THE VOLLEYBALL MANAGER FOR LONDON 2012. HE WAS TASKED WITH HEADING UP ALL THREE DISCIPLINES OF VOLLEYBALL AT THE OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC GAMES.
, Prior to working for LOCOG, Bob had been the competition manager for beach volleyball at the Atlanta Games and then went on to work for the Goodwill Games and FIVB. 3Touch caught up with Bob shortly after the Paralympics had drawn to a conclusion to find out how it had all gone.
When you first started working for LOCOG in 2009 what did you think would be your biggest challenge? My biggest challenge within LOCOG was convincing everyone just how big a global Olympic sport volleyball is and trying to get everyone to understand the scale of the task we were undertaking. The flip side was convincing the FIVB that there was substantial volleyball activity being undertaken in the UK and that it would be embraced by the British. Because there weren’t many international level teams coming out of the UK, they weren’t sure if volleyball was even played over here so I had to convince them that we would be welcomed and boy were we!
How did you find your previous involvement in the Olympics in Atlanta? Atlanta was fun because it was the first time beach volleyball had been part of the games therefore there was no pattern to follow and no one telling me what should and shouldn’t be done. We did everything at pretty short notice coming quite late into the Olympic programme but were one of the first events to sell out.
For you, what made the London Games unique? The Spectators across the piece were first class. London as a city itself really made the Games for me. London is such a unique city it is second only to New York in the level of
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Bob Clarke posing with London 2012 mascots
diversity and mix of its population. Being sold out from sessions 1-42 was a great achievement.
How would you assess the contribution Team GB made to the Games? Team GB did brilliantly, especially considering how they were such young teams in terms of how long they had been performing on the international stage. All the participants really stepped up to the plate and were fantastic. The format played into their hands to some extent which then also helped to enthuse the crowd.
How did you find working with the volunteers and workforce from London? I can’t say enough good things about a
brilliant team who were great to work with. Volleyball England needs to take a lot of the credit for this. Through Richard Callicottt and the NTO programme in particular we managed to set up a database of volunteers ready to integrate with the Games Maker programme when it fired up. When it came to it they all performed to a gold medal standard, which gave me great pleasure.
What was your highlight of the Games themselves - do you have a particular day or moment that was your favourite? Getting the first serve over on the first day on time and all going well was a favourite moment, but mainly out of a sense of relief! On the beach having a new nation on the top of the podium (the German men’s pair) was particularly pleasing. But seeing Misty