Linguistic diversity plays a crucial role in today's major international sporting events, such as the Olympic Games. These events not only celebrate sporting excellence, but are also an amalgamation of cultures and languages, reflecting the cultural and linguistic richness of the world.
The importance of language goes beyond communication, as it influences the shared experience between athletes, spectators and host countries. Exploring the diversity of languages at these events offers a fascinating insight into the intersection of sport, culture and national and international identity.
These events are broadcast on a global scale, adapting the content to the different existing languages so that all viewers can enjoy them and understand everything that is happening.
The linguistic diversity of the Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is one of the most followed events worldwide. This year it will be held in Paris, starting on July 26 and lasting 19 days. According to the International Olympic Committee, athletes from 206 different countries will compete in 2024, offering a wide diversity of cultures and languages. Spain will compete in a total of 28 sports with 382 athletes, 192 women and 190 men.
Dozens of different languages will be spoken at this great event, however, the official languages that will be spoken during the event are French and English. This is due to the origin of the modern Olympic Games in 1896 by Pierre de Coubertin, a French aristocrat who recovered this tradition. Moreover, at the time, French was the diplomatic language and the IOC headquarters was located in Switzerland, where French is also spoken. English became the co-official language of the event in 1972 due to its international relevance.
Translators play an invaluable role in the Olympics, as they are responsible for ensuring that athletes, coaches, officials and spectators from different parts of the world can communicate without language barriers. In addition, language technology support, such as simultaneous interpretation devices, complements the work of translators and contributes to a more inclusive and enriching experience for all Olympic participants.
Translation technologies created for globalization
The large influx of people of different nationalities and speaking different cultures at these events, the movement of people from one country to another either for tourism or to seek new opportunities, or even to follow artists and companies from other countries, globalization has brought a great cultural and multilingual richness, although sometimes people can suffer from certain language barriers to communicate with each other.
In response to the need for global intercommunication, companies such as Traductores VA have specialized in translation devices with Artificial Intelligence in order to eliminate language and communication barriers in various contexts. For example, in the case of Traductores VA, it has collaborated with NGOs through donations to facilitate communication between volunteers and refugees, as well as with public institutions to streamline management processes with foreign people. In addition, these devices offer significant benefits for tourists, providing them with a more enriching experience in their trips abroad, even allowing people with hearing disabilities to communicate in other languages with ease, contributing to a more inclusive and global tourism.
VA Translator V4 allows you to communicate with up to 90% of the world's population thanks to its support for 108 different languages, making it easy to interact with people from anywhere in the world. This software is compact on a 5-inch screen, lightweight and easy to carry, so you can take it out in any situation that requires it and put it back in any bag or pocket.
This device contains a SIM card that provides free Internet for life to the user in more than 200 countries. In this way, the user can use the translator in any circumstance without needing to rely on a WiFi signal, making it perfect for use both indoors and outdoors, where WiFi access is often difficult to obtain. In addition, it uses 10 translation engines for particularly fast and accurate translations.
The need to overcome language barriers has led to the development of innovative solutions, such as Artificial Intelligence translation devices, which not only benefit sporting events, but also humanitarian situations and international travel by facilitating interaction and understanding between people from all over the world.
