By Kristin Davis
The Free Lance-Star
FAIRFAX, Va. — They are all brothers and sisters here, connected by the oaths they took and the badges they wear.
They are opponents, too, if only momentarily, when they take to the court or the ring or the field to represent their professions and their countries at the World Police and Fire Games.
This is what David Sullivan thought about as he pulled on his protective headgear and Hogu vest for the second time Tuesday morning. The Fredericksburg Sheriff’s Office first sergeant was going for the gold in taekwondo, a sport he discovered as a teenager and has never given up.
This was the second match of three; he’d lost the first against a law enforcement officer from Brazil by the slimmest of margins. Now he faced off against a fellow American. If he won this one, Sullivan would be well on his way.
For years, Sullivan has followed the World Police and Fire Games, which every two years brings together local, state and national law enforcement officers, agents and emergency responders. They compete in a range of sports, from angling and archery to table tennis and tug of war.
Like the Olympics, it is held around the world: The 2013 games took place in Ireland, the 2011 games in New York.
Both had been too far away for Sullivan, who balanced a career and family with teaching and refereeing taekwondo around the region. But when he learned Fairfax would host the 2015 games, he knew he had to compete.
The sport had long complemented his job at the Sheriff’s Office, he said. Both require physical and mental discipline, the ability to think one step ahead and anticipate someone else’s next move.
Taekwondo also served as a much-needed stress reliever. And Sullivan had fallen in love with both his hobby and his profession early on.
“It was a childhood dream,” he said of law enforcement.
So was taekwondo, which he started at 14 after watching “The Karate Kid.”
Thirty years had passed since first stepping on the mat. He was a black belt now.
Still, as the games loomed, Sullivan knew he was in no shape to make a real go at it. It had been nearly a decade since his last competition, an amateur nationals events in which he took home gold.
So one month before the games, he started training in earnest with Olympian Arlene Limas at Power Kix Martial Arts in Stafford County. He modified his diet and started taking the stairs rather than the elevator at the new Fredericksburg courthouse, where his colleagues cheered him on. Thankful for their support and proud to represent them, he had the Sheriff’s Office logo stitched on his taekwondo uniform.
His wife and two children watched in awe as he practiced push-ups and pull-ups and went for jogs around the neighborhood after work.
“He was dedicated,” said 19-year-old daughter Ashley.
So when Sullivan stepped onto the mat Tuesday for his second match, with Ashley, wife Sharon and son Sean, 14, watching in the bleachers, he was determined to come out on top.
The match would last less than five minutes, a 30-second break between each of the three rounds.
Sullivan focused, feeling out his opponent in those early seconds.
At first, it was close. After the challenger scored two points, Sullivan said later, “I was not going to let him get any more.”
He didn’t. The Fredericksburg first sergeant was declared victor, 6-2. But the match took its toll.
After shaking hands and bowing to his competitor, a sweating Sullivan walked slowly off the mat. A blow to his chest had bruised his ribs, the medics who checked him out afterward determined.
It was no matter to Sullivan, who wanted to fight his third and final match. The silver — and maybe even the gold — seemed within grasp.
But the medics made the final call. He would have to bow out of the third match.It was enough to earn Sullivan the bronze. And his skill was enough to earn the admiration of the American he had beaten.
When that law enforcement officer went up for his third match, he asked Sullivan to sit in a chair on the sideline and serve as his coach. Brother to brother.
Copyright 2015 The Free Lance-Star