Stress management, teamwork and communication: the legacy of the 20,000 volunteers at Milan–Cortina

Problem-solving, teamwork, intercultural communication and stress management are among the soft skills that the Milan-Cortina Winter Games will have instilled in the more than 20,000 volunteers who took part: 13,708 for the Olympic Games and 6,316 for the Paralympic Games. Mostly young people – over half were under 35 – they will be able to enter the job market with an extra edge, partly due to the training they have received, and partly because being part of the organisational machinery of an event of this scale allows them to experience a process of intergenerational learning and collaboration that would normally take months and months.

The second report from the Randstad Research Observatory - Milan-Cortina 2026 “highlights how, for volunteers, the Milan-Cortina 2026 Games have proved to be a useful complement to traditional learning channels,” explains Emilio Colombo, Coordinator of the Randstad Research Scientific Committee. The experience of volunteering for the Olympic and Paralympic Games has, in fact, acted as a veritable ‘incubator’ for transferable and social skills, which, once the event was over, were channelled back into the local areas and communities to which the volunteers belong. And this was not merely a one-way process: with over half of the volunteers comprising working people or retired individuals with a career behind them, we were able to harness and systematise their prior experience, drawing on even highly specialised expertise to return it, enhanced, to the social fabric.” Diana Bianchedi, Chief Strategy Planning & Legacy Officer at Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026, adds that “the volunteers were the beating heart of Milano Cortina 2026. This Report confirms what we saw every day on the competition venues and at the operational sites: thousands of people who gave their time, energy and talent, and who, in return, gained a wealth of skills that today represent a true legacy for the country.”

Figures from the Observatory show that 90 per cent of those registered who completed the application process to volunteer at the Olympics were European citizens. Italians accounted for 78.9 per cent, whilst 21.1 per cent came from abroad, mainly from France (3.9 per cent), the United States (2.7 per cent) and Germany (2.5 per cent), followed by the United Kingdom (1.3 per cent), Switzerland (1.2 per cent), Canada (1.1 per cent), China (1.1 per cent), the Netherlands and Spain (0.5 per cent each). 93 per cent of those registered for the Paralympics were European, with 85.1 per cent residing in Italia. Those from abroad came mainly from France (3.2 per cent), the United States (2 per cent) and Germany (1.7 per cent).

As regards gender, women made up the majority of volunteers: 55.3 per cent for the Olympic Games and 53.3 per cent for the Paralympic Games. As with the overall average for volunteering, they have once again proved to be the main driving force behind civic engagement and organisational support. The volunteer pool proved to be extremely young: 35.5 per cent were aged 18–25, and over half were under 35. The profile of Paralympic volunteers was more mature: although the youth contingent remains significant (27.2 per cent), the ‘senior’ age groups are larger, with 22.4 per cent aged between 56 and 65. Among those registered, 45 per cent were already in employment.

Across the various economic sectors, Olympic volunteers were mainly distributed across the ‘General’ category, which includes communication, Medical and Human Resources (45.24 per cent), leisure and sports (19.65 per cent), transport and logistics (17 per cent), tourism services (15 per cent) and digital services (1 per cent). For the Paralympics too, the General Area accounted for the largest share (43.20 per cent), followed by transport and logistics (22.05 per cent) and recreational and sporting services (18.35 per cent).