#15: An Olympic Training Center

The door reads, "U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Site"

This was another place I thought we wouldn't get to see. I mean, all of the large training sites are located in big cities. But with a little bit of research, I discovered that the University of Central Oklahoma Wellness Center is an official U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Site. No way! UCO's involvement with the Paralympics began in 2005 and has been steadily growing ever since. The school offers sitting volleyball, archery, track & field, and rowing, to name a few. As luck would have it, my mom's cousin works at the Wellness Center, so I called her to talk with her about the program. She invited us to volunteer for the 2010 Endeavor Games, being held this weekend at the university.

The kids and I signed up to help with archery. The athletes were awesome! One man was missing his right forearm and shot the bow, holding the arrow back with his teeth! A said he was incredibly accurate, too!

The archers completed 6 "ends", took a break, and finished 6 more "ends".

A was in charge of marking the target and recording the scores for one of the archers.

She also had to retrieve his arrows.

A:

I LOVED volunteering at the Endeavor Games! It was SO much fun!!!!! We signed up to help the archery section. My mom and my brother were the people that were holding flags that would tell the shooters when to shoot and when to stop. I on the other hand, was assigned a person, and I would retrieve their arrows after they shot them. I also had to keep score for that one person. I had a blast! Except it was really hot and humid outside, so I was practically dying in the heat! Next year I would like to volunteer for the Endeavor Games again. I had so much fun!

C and I were in charge of signal flags on one side of the field.

Green signals the athletes to begin.

A yellow flag means the athletes have 30 seconds more before the "end" is over.

A new toxophilite? (archery lover)

C:

I got to go to an archery competition. It was really fun holding the flags. There was this guy who was older than my sister, and he had a wooden bow. His target was closer than the others because his bow couldn't shoot as far. The red flag meant "Don't shoot yet - get ready." The green flag meant "Shoot." The yellow flag meant "30 seconds left." Or less if they stopped before it was over. There was a guy who had an arm that wasn't there, and he was shooting with his mouth. He got a lot of X's.