Alabama soldier and athlete Elioenai Campos is ready to compete in The World Games
Elioenai Campos recites the athletes’ oath on behalf of the more than 3,600 athletes competing in The World Games at the Opening Ceremonies July 7. (Solomon Crenshaw Jr. / Alabama NewsCenter)
Elioenai Campos was born in Brazil and sometimes struggles to find the right words to express himself.
But the Columbiana resident makes it very clear that he is proud to be competing in Ju-Jitsu as an American citizen during The World Games.
“Oh my god. I can’t exactly find the right words to describe what I have been feeling right now,” he said, recalling his daily 5 a.m. prayer. “I appreciate God for another day. Every time that happens, I just, like, look around me and I see what I’m living through right now. It’s just such a blast.
“I’m so super proud for this opportunity,” Campos continued. “I feel very humble for God to choose me to give this amazing chance, this amazing opportunity to be part of an amazing team, which is the Alabama National Guard. I have my second family now in this country.”
Someday, the 37-year-old hopes to bring his 10-year-old son to the county seat of Shelby County. Until then, Campos is happy to be part of his adoptive family in the Alabama National Guard and the martial arts gym he owns.
“To be part of the U.S. team and to compete for The World Games, it brings me a lot of joy,” he said. “I’m just so happy, super excited about that. I feel so humble and I even ask God how I could even get this much of a chance. I’m just really, really, really excited about it.”
At The World Games 2022 Opening Ceremonies July 7, it was Campos who recited the athletes’ oath on behalf of the more than 3,600 competing in The World Games.
“My family is the Alabama National Guard and my people here that are training with me,” Campos said. “That’s the only family I’ve got here.”
A rifleman in the 167th Infantry Battalion, Campos said Ju-Jitsu is a ground game in the world of martial arts. He’s been able to introduce others to that sport through Ground Strike Grappling.
“The purpose is to go to the ground all the time,” he said. “My nickname is Raio. In English it means lightning. My girlfriend, she helped me come up with this name. One day, lightning hit the ground and it’s called ground strike. That’s the reason we named the team Ground Strike.”
Campos was introduced to Ju-Jitsu as a 10-year-old. He recalls his father was concerned about him being involved with good people.
“The sport was something that could provide that for me,” he said. “As a kid, I was shy and all that stuff. My father always understand that the sport, specifically in a martial art, will be something that would help me with that, to be more confident, much stronger and help my mindset.”
There is no punching or kicking in this martial art. Competitors tussle with one another, each trying to get the other to “tap out.”
“That grows in you a confidence and strength, not just in your hands but also in your mind and your heart as well,” he said. “I learned from a very young age that this is how life is. Life is a constant challenge that you don’t know what it’s gonna bring, what you’re going to face. And when you face it, you have to figure out the best way to fight back and try to survive.”
Campos, a Ju-Jitsu world champion in 2017 and world runner-up in 2019, long wanted to join the Alabama National Guard, but he first had to overcome the challenge of learning to speak English.
“I was 30 and I was studying to pass the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) to get in the military,” he said. “When I was 34, I take my GED portion in order to get the ASVAB done and go in the military.
“It took for me almost five years,” Campos said. “I just couldn’t get in, No. 1, because it was not in God’s time. Also, there was a destiny and it was all in English. I had to study. I had a lot of setbacks. I tried so hard to study.”
But despite the setbacks, he kept coming back.
“I keep failing my test but I just continued to go and use my frustration as a motivation to continue to go after it,” he said. “A lot of people ask me this question: ‘Man, you’re almost 40 years old. How the heck you wait this long to join the Army?’ I said I didn’t wait this long. I had been trying for a long time, but I just couldn’t make it in.”
The Ju-Jitsu competition at The World Games takes place July 15-16 at Bill Battle Coliseum at Birmingham-Southern College. Learn more at twg2020.com.
