News

Offutt Airman competes in NATO athletic championships

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Rachel Hammes
  • 55th Wing Public Affairs

An Offutt Airman competed in the NATO Allied Air command Inter-Nation Athletics Championship on Ramstein Air Base, Germany, June 21-21.

Airman Karla Soto-Tena, an Airman with the King Dining Facility, ran the 400 meter dash and participated in the Swedish relay. She placed 4th in the 400 meter run, and 2nd in the Swedish relay.

Offutt AFB is Soto-Tena’s first duty station, and after arriving in January she wanted to find something to keep her focused. She typed “track and field Air Force” into a search engine, and the Air Force Sports Program popped up, which is the name of the U.S. Air Force-specific program in the championship.

Intrigued, Soto-Tena decided to apply.

“It was a really long process – I had to call a bunch of old coaches and ask for letters of recommendation, stuff like that,” Soto-Tena said. “It was actually like a job application. It gets routed up through the base, the commander, all the way up through the major command.”

Staff Sgt. Darrius Dupree, King Dining Facility assistant manager, helped to create a training plan geared toward making Soto-Tena as competitive as possible.

“My best friend is a high school track coach, and she gave me a work out plan and I tailored it to Soto so we could get a good work out in and work on her speed and her form,” he said. “Monday, Wednesday and Friday were more or less weight lifting, and Tuesdays and Thursdays were cardio and speed work. She’s very intense, so she needed that extra push.”

In May, Soto-Tena’s application was officially submitted, and she found out shortly thereafter that she had made the team.

“I didn’t think it was a big deal – when I went there, I thought I was probably just going to do a trial and they would probably tell me then if I was on the team or not,” she said. “But as soon as I got there, they were like, ‘No, you were selected for the team.’ I was like, ‘Oh wow, nobody told me that.’”

While in Ramstein, Soto-Tena was able to see a new side of the Air Force and those who make it up. Her team was made up of enlisted and commissioned active duty Airmen, at all points in their careers.

“I wish everyone could experience this, because it really shows you how to work with different people,” she said. “As a young Airman, you’re not really exposed to as many things. I feel like a lot of people here see an officer and they’re like, ‘Oh, I can’t talk to an officer, I can’t talk to a sergeant.’ But that really showed me that I can. That was really humbling for me.”

Soto-Tena is proud of the team’s performance at the competition. The United States men’s and women’s teams were ranked number one out of the six competing nations.

“We did really well,” she said. “I ended up getting 4th in the 400 meter run, but the time was really good. These girls were running like 52 seconds, so super fast. In the Swedish relay, there are four people, and the first person runs a 100 meter, the second person runs a 200, the third person runs a 300 and the fourth person runs a 400. I was the third person. We were doing great, we were in first place – and then we got to the 400-meter, and our runner was almost done when the woman from Poland came out of nowhere. We were like, ‘Where did she come from?’ They were neck to neck! In the picture from the end, her hair was like right in front, so they gave it to the Polish team. It was literally by a hair. So we got second place in that.”

Soto-Tena plans on competing in future Air Force athletic competitions, although she is currently on a much less regimented training program following the championship. She would encourage anyone interested in athletic competitions to try for it.

“I got told by a lot of people, ‘You’re not going to do it, you’re not going to do well, you’re not going to make it,’” she said. “Do not listen to them. Do whatever you want to do. There’s no such thing as motivation. That’s just a feeling, that’s just for now. Drive is there. You have to be driven to do something. If you’re driven – that’s my advice to people, do what you want to do.”