By David Dodson

Robert Andoh doesn't have tickets to the men's gold-medal soccer match in Sanford Stadium, but that hasn't stopped him from hoping and praying that he'll be there.

Whether or not Andoh attends the gold-medal round depends on the good fortune of Ghana's soccer team. That's because Andoh, who works for UGA's Business Outreach Services, is serving as the Atlanta Olympic committee's envoy to the delegation from Ghana.

As one of the 179 envoys selected and trained by the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, Andoh will be the primary liaison between ACOG and his native country's Olympic committee while they stay in Atlanta.

His day-to-day role will be to accompany Ghana's "chef de mission," the title given to each nation's top sports official at the Olympics. But, he says, "I'm available to the entire team 24 hours a day. This is not an 8-to-5 job."

Rigorous training regimen
Andoh will shepherd about 60 athletes from the west African republic; the entire delegation numbers close to 100. He says the two-year training regimen to prepare the envoys has been rigorous in its detail.

"We've been tested on every minute detail we need to know as envoys," he says, everything from International Olympic Committee rules to where an athlete can get a haircut in the Olympic Village. "After two years of training, we're ready to go."

One of Andoh's first tasks as envoy is to arrange the team's welcoming ceremony at the Olympic Village, at which time Ghanašs flag is hoisted and national anthem played. From that point on, Andoh will rely on his ACOG training and the very same principles of management he offers others through Business Outreach Services to help make his team's Olympic experience as comfortable and accommodating as possible.

Unique perspective
"I see my job with the Olympic Games as managing a piece of a Fortune 500 company," says Andoh, who is area director of the Business Outreach Services office in Norcross. The unique perspective he will gain from being involved with the largest peacetime event in history was part of the reason Andoh's supervisors let him accept the assignment.

"I was surprised and very, very pleased that the university would go this far to allow me to participate," he says of the six-week engagement.

The only thing that could make the experience any more satisfying, he says, is if his next trip to Athens is for the medal round of the men's soccer competition.

"Ghana won the bronze medal in Barcelona," he says. "If we can win the gold this year, well, that would be the icing on the cake."