More than 23 years ago, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was hastily created just two months after the horrific events of 9/11 with the aim of providing federal overview of aviation safety across the United States.
Over the last two decades, the agency has come under considerable scrutiny and has faced criticism for its ability (or inability) to actually detect real security threats, but it’s a reputation that the Homeland Security Administration has been trying to shake off for years.
In order to promote best practices with a little bit of healthy competition, the TSA decided to create its very own ‘Olympics’, and on the 23rd anniversary of 9/11, the agency held its fourth annual Olympics at its headquarters in Springfield, Virginia.
From more than 50,000 Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) working at airports and other ports across the United States, just 54 qualified to take part in the TSA Olympics where they were put through their paces in a series of challenges to see just how good they are at threat detection.
From pat-down searches, handbag searches, and special screening techniques for wheelchair-bound passengers, the officers were assessed to see whether their training really was up to muster.
The TSOs competed at the state level, with Team Washington taking the Gold, Team Nevada securing Silver, and Team Oklahoma taking home the Bronze medal.
“We’ve never participated in a competition like this,” commented Christian Innela, who has been working as a TSO at Washington’s Bellingham International Airport for the past two years.
“We just trained up to get our knowledge as strong as it could be. It was nice to have some familiarity with the style of testing. I was glad to be overprepared rather than underprepared,” Innela continued.
TSA Deputy Administrator Holly Canevari says the Olympic’s aren’t just about healthy competition but “celebrating the vital skills that lie at the heart of our mission – threat detection, security and service excellence.”
Along with some of the other tests, the TSOs also competed on how well they carry out checked baggage searches and interpret X-ray images for possible threats like explosive devices, and firearms.
To secure their Gold medal, Team Washington brought in its competitors to their training department in Seattle, where they underwent specialist training from experts, including a transportation security specialist in explosives and the deputy assistant federal security director of threat assessment.
“It was a lot of fun, challenging, great camaraderie among the teams, a learning opportunity to improve our skills,” commented Catherine McCollam from Team Oklahoma, who was taking part in the TSA Olympics for the second time.
“Medals don’t matter at the end of the day. What matters is that we all come together, we screen efficiently and have each other’s backs.”
Despite criticism of the TSA’s ability to detect threats, the agency does seem to be getting better at finding banned items in hand luggage. In 2023, the agency discovered more firearms in passenger luggage than in any other year since the TSA’s inception in 2001.
A record 6,737 firearms were stopped at TSA security checkpoints at airports across the United States, and the vast majority of those were loaded.
The airport with the most offenders was Atlanta with 451 intercepted firearms, followed by Dallas Fort Worth with 373 intercepted firearms, Houston with 311, Phoenix with 235, and Nashville rounding out the top five worst airports for firearm interceptions with 188 intercepted guns.
Disgusting. An Olympics on how to properly grope the elderly of this country.