Croughton firefighter wins gold, competes in 9th World Firefighter Games in Hong Kong

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Chris Stagner
  • 422nd ABS Public Affairs
ROYAL AIR FORCE CROUGHTON, England (USAFENS) --  Firefighters throughout the world take pride in the fact that they are well known for being in top physical shape. One member of the 422nd Civil Engineer Squadron Fire Department recently took that pride a step further than most when he traveled almost 12,000 miles round trip to compete in the 9th World Firefighter Games in Hong Kong. The biannual competition has 52 events and was attended by more than 3,000 competitors.

Lead Firefighter Steve Price competed in three of those 52 events and stood out among the 3,000 competitors when he won the gold medal in Indoor Rowing.

Price competed against fire fighters from France and South Africa in the event and beat the second place finisher by eight seconds.

“I know that doesn’t sound like much, but that’s about 20 meters in front of the nearest competitor,” he said.

The race is, in essence, a 2,000-meter sprint according to Price.

“You’ve really got to know what you’re doing,” he said. “It’s a sprint, but you don’t want to burn yourself out in the first 1,000 meters.”

The race is conducted indoors using rowing machines. The machines have indicators that let you know exactly what place you’re in and how far you are from the person in front of you and behind you said Price. He used those indicators to his advantage.

“When I got to 500 meters I was in third place,” he said. “I thought at that point it would be nice to finish with a bronze. When I got to a thousand I was in second and thought I might have a chance to win it. When I hit the 1,500 meter mark I moved into first place and then just kept the pressure on.”

Price has the gold to prove it.

He didn’t keep his competitive spirit to his area of expertise, though. He also competed in the 50-meter backstroke and freestyle swim.

“That’s not my strongest area, and it showed,” laughed Price as he talked about the competition. “It was really embarrassing. Not only did I come in last, I was about 10 seconds behind the guy who came in second to last. That’s a pretty big difference when you’re only swimming 50 meters.”

The Firefighter Games in Hong Kong weren’t the first ones Price has competed in.

“I competed in the games in Sheffield (England) two years ago,” he said. “It was then I decided I was going to do the one in China.”

The Hong Kong games won’t be his last either. The next games are in Liverpool, England, and Price will be there.