COLORADO SPRINGS — The Rocky Mountain State Games have been in progress this July, fostering a multi-sport festival for athletes of all ages, skills, and abilities. On Sunday, July 23rd. I was able to visit two different competitions: powerlifting, and ninja training.
At the Powerlifting competition, athletes focused on benching, squatting, and deadlifting extremely heavy weights.
"They [Rocky Mountain State Games] put on a good show. It's fun, a lot of competitors, lot of strong guys," said competitor Enrique Estrada.
Estrada says the theme of sportsmanship and friendly competition is very prevalent in the weightlifting community. That's no different in Colorado Springs.
"I mainly do this- a lot of people mainly do this just for the environment, meet some new people, be able to lift some good weights, see some big numbers people are putting up. Yeah, you get good competition and a good environment, it's fun," said Estrada.
At the powerlifting competition, 92-year-old Raymond Bernabe was able to bench 180 pounds.
"It was, uh, tough," said Bernabe. "It was a heap of fun, and these are nice people".
At the ninja training competition, coaches were happy to see such a wide variety of skill sets.
"It's awesome seeing all kinds of ages come and try this sport, some of these kids come in and they've been doing it 2-3 years, and sometimes we have athletes where it's their first-day doing stuff," said Ninja Training Coach at Altitude Ninja Gym Kyle Smith.
"We have never once put somebody down. we always want to push each other to the next thing, and today was a great example of that," he continued.
The Rocky Mountain State Games still have upcoming events for Cornhole, Youth Cricket, Disc Golf, Figure Skating, Softball, Taekwondo, and Weightlifting. You can learn more onColorado Springs Sports Corp's website.
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