Endeavor Games let disabled athletes compete once again

By Greg Elwell

Published: June 7, 2006

EDMOND - Maj. Ed Pulido used to be a runner.

He played running sports, like soccer and softball, but he really just liked to run.

In May 2004, a roadside bomb blast in Baquaba in the northeast part of Iraq, slowed him down. It did so by taking his left leg.

He was in the Army for 18 years. Now, two years after losing the leg, he walks on a prosthetic limb, albeit slower than he'd like.

At the 7th annual Endeavor Games, which start Thursday at the University of Central Oklahoma, Pulido will compete in archery.

Competitors first
Looking at the list of events for the Endeavor Games, it becomes clear that the competitors are athletes with disabilities and not disabled athletes.

What's the difference? Well, maybe it's just semantics, but I think putting the "athlete" first makes a big difference.

These are competitors. These are sportsmen. They just happen to have some physical disabilities.

You could add two arms and legs to my frame and I still wouldn't be able to cut the mustard in most of the games these people will be playing.

Last year, about 300 people came to fight it out in 10 events. Not just from Oklahoma, but from 28 states and three countries.

The ones Pulido, an Edmond resident, wants to talk to are the soldiers, recently returned from war, missing arms and legs, some confined to wheelchairs.

"The main emphasis is to provide support," he told me over lunch. "When soldiers come in, we have to let them know that life is not over for them."

He wondered if his life would ever be the same again after he lost his leg, but Pulido knows that, while different, he just has to work harder to live his life like he did before.

Programs such as the Endeavor Games helped him realize that losing a leg is not losing your life. He recently went skiing with Disabled Sports USA.

Some of the athletes at the games were born with their disabilities. They know better than anybody the hard work it takes to lead lives many of us take for granted. By connecting soldiers with these athletes, it opens their eyes, Pulido said.

I hope some of you can make it out and have your eyes opened as well. All the events will be at UCO and Deer Creek High School.

For more information and event schedule, go to www.ucok.edu/wellnesscenter/ds_endeavor.htm.