Kazan 2013 SU Volunteers welcome Russian Athletes to Olympic London

Marat Bariev flanked by 2 Kazan SU volunteers in London

KAZAN/LONDON – With just a few hours left to go to the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, the ‘golden hundred’ of the Sochi 2014 Volunteer Team including Tatiana Nikulina, member of the Kazan 2013 team, and another five volunteers from Kazan are working hard to ensure the Games will be a success.

As Tatiana Nikulina earlier wrote in her tweet, the days leading up to the start of the biggest sporting event in the world were ‘extremely busy’. One of these days was July 25th, when 13 teams in different sports arrived at once in London for the Games.

The pre-Games programme, Tatiana Nikulina said, also included the Team Welcome Ceremony. The event brought together distinguished guests, including Marat Bariev, Secretary General of the Russian Olympic Committee and former FISU CESU member. In a friendly chat with the volunteers he noted the importance of gaining Olympic experience for a successful management of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan.

Albina Khusainova, another volunteer from Kazan, was assigned a role as a placard bearer for the Russian national team; she was selected for this honorable mission by drawing lots. The Ceremony represented a spectacular musical performed by talented artists of the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain. The official part featured a speech by the Athletes’ Village Mayor, gift exchange and solemn flag raising ceremony.

The volunteers also attended the Athletes’ Parade rehearsal.

(Source: Kazan OC Media Dept.)