Prince William County Sheriff’s Office Public Safety Services Technician, Josephine Breckley, competed in the Sixth Annual European Police and Fire Games held in the city of Huelva, Spain and the town of San Juan del Puerto from June 11-19, 2016.
The European Police and Fire Games event gives law enforcement personnel (police officers, firefighters, military, prison officials, bodyguard, etc.) an opportunity to come together as a team to compete in different games held every two years. This year’s event had more than 5,300 competitors, with Breckley being the only law enforcement representative from the United States to compete in the event.
This was the first time Breckley competed in an international level, although she has competed in other events. Breckley, who has been with the Sheriff’s Office since 2014, prepared herself for this event a year in advance. She trained three times a day every day. Her daily workout routine consisted of spending two hours in the gym in the morning, attending Taekwondo class for an hour then doing cardio work for another hour.
Out of 74 sports, Breckley competed in four: Athletics Relay, Bench Press, Karate, and Taekwondo. She received a Gold medal in Athletics Relay, a Bronze medal in Bench Press, a Gold medal in Karate and four Gold medals in Taekwondo.
Competing in the European event would not have been possible for Breckley without sponsors and the support she received for various Prince William County departments and outside organizations. Breckley stated, “I don’t believe I would have been able to get to this day without all of you helping me; you were all instrumental in this; your selfless acts helped me. I hope I made you all proud and made you feel like your sacrifices for me wasn’t done in vain.”
The Prince William County Sheriff’s Office is very proud of Breckley and all of her achievements. When asked if she is planning on competing in any other sport tournaments, Breckley stated, “Yes. I am still going to the gym and training every day so I can compete in future events.” Breckley is hoping to compete in the 2017 World Police and Fire Games.
Wherever Breckley decides to go next in her competition journey, one thing for sure is this…the Prince William County Sheriff’s Office will be rooting for her the whole way.