'Kings Challenge' Pushes American Competitors To Brink In Oversees Competition

Tulsa's special operations team performed well in the World Warrior competition recently in Amman, Jordan.

Thursday, May 2nd 2019, 11:11 am

By: News On 6

'Kings Challenge' Pushes American Competitors To Brink In Oversees Competition

Tulsa's special operations team performed well in the World Warrior competition recently in Amman, Jordan.

The goal of every team is to make it into the top 15 to the King's challenge; the toughest, most taxing event of the week. News On 6 sent Lori Fullbright and photojournalist Oscar Pea to Jordan to cover the only American team to compete.

The first challenge of the day was the trench foot. It starts by running the length of five football fields, up a 45-degree steep hill.

As they're doing these challenges, they're wearing a lot of heavy gear; their ballistic vest, their ruck and their weapon for around 30 pounds and in almost every competition, they're adding more weight to that.

This time, they have to carry 45 pounds of ammo each, then slog through waist deep water, then take turns shooting different weapons. Despite their legs and lungs on fire, they must get through the course in under six minutes.

And for completing the challenge under time, one officer took a celebratory dunk in the water. Make no mistake, these big, tough men also have a silly side, but when it's time to get serious, they put on a game face like no other.

One of the nice things was the great sportsmanship among the teams as they shared information about the challenges and encouraged each other along the way.

The competitors got to see each other not as groups, but individuals who despite their cultural and religious differences, have a lot in common: love of family, loyalty to country, the desire to fight evil, and protect the innocent.

Tulsa's team completed their final shooting challenge under time, despite one of them tearing a hamstring, going down, but getting up and fighting through the pain to finish, which put Tulsa in the top 15 teams and the King's Challenge.

They had two hours to climb up a sheer rock face, zip line across a great divide, carefully walk along cables across a river, march for miles in heavy gear, stop and do different shooting competitions along the way. The king's challenge is famous for pushing teams to the absolute brink, physically and mentally.

Tulsa finished the competition 12th overall, very impressive for a first-year team.

There's no doubt the other teams were impressed with our team's skills. The lasting impression is at least these Americans were funny, supportive, and all-around good guys.

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