See Lacey Teen Ninja Warrior Compete on NBC Game Show This Summer

BEAUTY IN BEAST MODE: Ava Colasanti of Lacey will flip 16 this month, within the midst of competing on ‘American Ninja Warrior.’

“American Ninja Warrior” returns to NBC for Season 13 on Might 31. It’s the sport present the place among the nation’s most elite athletes tackle the world’s most tough obstacles. Amongst this season’s greater than 400 rivals is Lacey Township Excessive Faculty scholar Ava Colasanti, at present ranked fifth amongst elite females within the Nationwide Ninja League standings.

Her motto: “This magnificence is in beast mode.”

Subsequent week, Colasanti and her household will journey to Tacoma, Wash., for qualifiers. From there she’ll go on to semifinals in mid-April at Common Studios in Los Angeles after which she hopes to face the 4 phases on the nationwide finals in Las Vegas.

“American Ninja Warrior” premiered in 2009 and began a health revolution primarily based on obstacles and a type of leisure exercise known as parkour, wherein contributors climb, soar, scramble, dangle, swing, catch, stability and sure from one floor to a different. It takes power, agility and full-body coordination. Ninjaguide.com lists 21 ninja warrior coaching gyms and coaching programs in New Jersey.

Season 12 of “ANW” reached 35 million viewers.

For the primary time ever, the minimal age to compete on the present has been lowered to fifteen. Colasanti turns 16 on the finish of this month. The highest prize is $1 million.

“Ninja warrior is a sport that has been quickly rising throughout the nation, and children of all ages are embracing it in report numbers,” in line with on-line journal American Ninja Warrior Nation. “A few of at this time’s most promising expertise are youthful rivals, and now youngsters can have the prospect to compete alongside grownup athletes.”

A typical day for Colasanti begins with just a little stretching and yoga, a 45-minute ab exercise, 100 squats and 100 pushups. She then places in a full faculty day, does her homework, and bikes or runs a mile and a half to high school for gymnastics observe. She grabs some dinner earlier than heading again out to spend a number of hours coaching at Centercourt Athletic Membership of Lawrence, an hour’s drive every approach.

Such dedication is what it takes to go up towards the most effective within the sport. She is fortunate to have the backing of an athletic and enthusiastic household. Mother Kim is a distance runner; dad Ralph is a climber at Gravity Vault in Brick. Dad can be like a pseudo-coach to her and to others at Centercourt, Ava mentioned. Her youthful brother Nico takes on a help function.

“It’s a lot enjoyable for me that I don’t really feel like I’m figuring out,” she defined. She and her mates on the gymnasium type a powerful system of mutual help, with everybody pushing one another to do their greatest and succeed. Kim described it as “an enormous household.”

Ava has additionally seen how the rewards she reaps are proportional to the trouble she places in. “I do know if I work onerous I’ll get someplace.”

Moreover at residence, her dad has helped her remodel their two-car storage right into a ninja warrior gymnasium: 4 rock-climbing partitions, obstacles, peg board, slack line and diverse stability tools. At present Colasanti’s coaching is targeted on replicating programs in preparation for the present. Her strengths, she mentioned, are lockoffs (a time period within the climbing group that describes hanging in a bent-arm place like holding the highest of a pullup) and something that requires higher physique and grip. Flying bars are probably the most difficult for her. She has a number of coaches guiding her alongside the way in which. Two of her coaches can even be competing on the present.

Colasanti’s love of the game started at an inflatables 5K race in June 2016. At age 10, she joined Base Camp Journey Health in Toms River and ultimately joined the Nationwide Ninja League, a nonprofit ninja impediment course group with a mission to develop right into a correctly regulated sport for athletes from leisure to skilled ranges.​ Beneath a unified rule set, the NNL offers a number of competitions every season for athletes as younger as 6.

Colasanti’s first ninja warrior competitors exterior her residence gymnasium was in 2018. She took first place. She didn’t do as effectively at her first worlds competitors the next February in Connecticut. She was dissatisfied however undeterred. From March to June of that yr, she skilled onerous after which utilized for the “ANW” junior present, however didn’t get on.

Whereas attending open gymnasium at Centercourt in August 2019, the coaches there took discover of Colasanti’s abilities and invited her to affix the crew. By that fall, she began profitable competitions once more.

In November 2019, a brand new ninja league known as UNX League, for ages 13 and up, was coming to Centercourt, and the Colasantis reduce quick their household trip so Dad and Ava could possibly be there to participate. One among 75 rivals, Ava waited all day for her flip to compete, feeling drained and beneath the climate. Lastly at 8 p.m. she was up – and he or she gained first place.

In February 2020, at her second worlds finals in North Carolina, she made it to stage three and resulted in seventh place.

She has additionally competed in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and Colorado.

At first of December 2020, Colasanti received a direct message on Instagram from an “American Ninja Warrior” scout. At first she assumed the message was faux.

The invitation to check out for the present “didn’t actually sink in,” she mentioned. She needed to act quick to submit a video and software supplies. Then the entire month of January they waited for the telephone to ring. Lastly the decision got here.

Colasanti is one among about 25 teenagers chosen from throughout the nation, and he or she is aware of all of them.

“I’ll really feel comfy (on set) as a result of so many mates shall be there,” she mentioned.

The nervousness, if any, is within the particulars. The peak of the stunts, for instance, is larger than she’s used to; the water landings are daunting. Mother, in fact, is nervous about her lady getting damage.

As with every athletic pursuit, accidents include the territory. Some time again, she sprained her bicep doing a one-arm pullup whereas holding a 20-pound weight in her free hand. That put her out of fee for a bit, which was extra painful than the harm itself.

“I by no means need to take relaxation days. I hate resting,” she mentioned. “That’s the toughest factor.”

— Victoria Ford

victoria@thesandpaper.net