Youth Games Tear Down Boundaries of Inner City : Competition: Event that began in East L.A. and expanded after riots mixes athletics, entrepreneurship.

Akeli Slade is not one to hide his pride in his accomplishments. Just ask the 14-year-old Compton resident about competing in the Inner City Games’ track and field events, and he quickly pulls from his pants pocket three gold and two silver medals. All together, Slade said, he and his teammates from a youth center won 31 medals.

“It was good competition, but we worked hard and we deserved these medals,” Slade said Saturday during the game’s official ceremonies at the Shrine Auditorium.

It’s just such self-esteem that organizers of the fifth Inner City Games--a monthlong event consisting of athletic competitions, essay contests and entrepreneur training--hope to instill in its 150,000 young participants. Founded in 1989 in East Los Angeles by Daniel L. Hernandez, a man born in Watts to poor parents, the Olympic-style games have grown to a nearly half-million-dollar-budget affair with major support from bodybuilder-turned-actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The free games, held from Aug. 4 through Sept. 11, allow Los Angeles-area youths to compete in sports such as baseball, basketball, flag football, soccer and academic contests in events held citywide. During Saturday’s ceremony, a martial arts competition was followed by a show featuring entertainer Arsenio Hall, dancers, rappers and an appearance by Schwarzenegger.

Hernandez, who was wounded at age 19 in the Vietnam War, believes strongly that youths facing poverty, gangs and drugs in Los Angeles’ urban neighborhoods need only a glimpse of what’s beyond their sheltered world to pursue their dreams.

“No kids can ever tell me there is hopelessness in the United States,” said Hernandez, 49. “It’s not hopelessness. It’s just that they have to learn the system. Inner-city kids are so far removed from the system. We’ve got to wheel them back into the system so they can understand it.”

The games, mostly held on college campuses, are structured to introduce youths to experiences not usually found in their neighborhoods. A water-skiing competition is included, although the youths mostly tumbled on the water, and last year an entrepreneurial program was added.

“We really believe a strong mind and a strong body are the American way,” said Hernandez, executive director of East Los Angeles’ Hollenbeck Youth Center. “And the American way is capitalism, which means learning how to make money and budget money.”

The medal-winning Slade has grasped the concept of both athletics and business. As part of the game’s business expo, Slade staffed a booth promoting “NFL Chill,” a clothing line he and several other teen-agers founded with the help of the National Football League.

“We all own stock,” said Slade, a 10th-grader at Compton High School. “So we’re like business associates. I think it’s a good start.” A store featuring the youths’ clothing line is scheduled to open Wednesday in Compton.

For nine young men from Lincoln Heights, the games offered a chance to show off their roller hockey skills. Formed just two months ago, the team has already made it to the championship playoffs of their Whittier league, where they play because there are no hockey leagues in East Los Angeles.

“These kids are so dedicated,” said coach Sergio Villasenor as his team played against a team from Santa Monica in a Shrine parking lot. “We’ve had to pick them up at 3 a.m. to get playing time in the rink. There is a large demand for these things, but there are just not enough facilities.”

Three years ago the games got an unexpected boost from the explosive forces of the inner city itself. After the 1992 riots, Schwarzenegger, who is the games’ executive commissioner and driving force behind its fund raising, asked Hernandez to expand the events beyond East Los Angeles.

“Even though the world was looking at the riots as a negative thing, it brought out the true heart of the city of Los Angeles,” said Hernandez. “The sports organizations, leaders of the inner city and Hollywood community all started working together. Out of something really negative, came something really, really positive.”