First ‘ANW’ Winner with Cerebral Palsy Plans to Compete Again
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When Vance Walker was born with a form of cerebral palsy known as spastic diplegia, doctors told his parents that he would probably never walk without leg braces, and he certainly would never become an athlete. Apparently, Walker didn’t get the message because this week, the 18-year-old from Tampa, Fla., was crowned the winner of American Ninja Warrior season 15.
Walker is only the third-ever winner of the $1 million prize money since the series debuted in 2009. The previous two were Drew Drechsel in 2019 and Isaac Caldiero in 2015.
“It means so much to have worked this hard for something and it finally pays off,” Walker tells Parade. “I’ve made American Ninja Warrior my life for the last eight years and seeing all that work and all that pain of all the times I came up short and all that pain of training as hard as I can and hurting during those course runs, it’s just amazing to see it finally play out.”
Walker initially began competing on American Ninja Warrior Junior, winning every race in his age group and becoming the first two-time champion after competing over the first two seasons. At that time, he was residing in Texas, and earned the nickname "Walker Texas Ninja." Those wins propelled him on to ANW when he was old enough to compete in the adult version of the show, and he says that now, even though he has won the top prize, he isn’t done.
“I’m coming back as long as the show lets me,” he says. “I’ve won it once, but I’m not done. I’m not planning on going to college currently. I’m hoping to make this work out. If I win it a couple more times maybe that can fund the rest of my life. I’m hoping to keep doing this as long as I can and just hoping that I stick around and make it my career.”
Following his win, Walker celebrated with his family. They had a giant viewing party for the episode and then they all got aboard a party bus to mark the special occasion. But it won’t be long before he’s back to training.
Photo Credit: Elizabeth Morris/NBC
“Now that I’ve won it it’s a little harder to find that motivation to come back,” he admits. “But I love this sport, and this is what I do for fun. I didn’t come here specifically to win. I’m one of the people that’s capable of it, but that’s not why I do it. I enjoy being here, I enjoy being on these courses and here with all my friends. Even though I already won it I want to come back as long as I can just to be a part of it.”
And, oh, yes. He may just buy a new car with his winnings.
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Walker also discussed with Parade how American Ninja Warrior builds a community of friends who often train together, how he prepared for stage four with the addition of two new obstacle challenges, what initially got him interested, how he hopes to become a ANW coach, and more.
The interesting thing about competing on American Ninja Warrior is unlike baseball or football it’s not a team sport. You’re only competing really against yourself would you say?
Yeah, that’s one of the weird things about Ninja is it’s not a team sport like a lot of other sports. But the community is even more supportive. Even though it’s one person against the entire course at a time, if one person achieves victory, it’s a victory for the entire community. We’re all working with each other, supporting each other to get one person on top of that mountain.
Several of you train together and, even though you beat Daniel Gil, he came over and gave you a hug. What is it about being a Ninja Warrior that inspires this camaraderie, this fraternity?
It’s a very supportive community. I think the reason for that is that none of us are here for the money. We’re here for the competition, for the community and just to be part of something this big.
Is there money along the way other than the million? It sounds like it’s expensive with all the training you do, and people hire coaches.
Yeah, the rough part about American Ninja Warrior is there’s not many places that you can win money along the way. There’s the Mega Wall in qualifiers for $10,000 and there’s prizes for first, second and third in the qualifiers and semi rounds. But once you get to Vegas, it’s only the top person that gets money. So, if nobody wins the million dollars and nobody gets to the top of stage four, there’s $100,000 for the last man standing.
How did you prepare for this? At the end of stage four, there were two new obstacles. Do they let you do a test run on those?
Yeah, preparing myself for these courses, I would set up replicas of previous versions of these stages. I would setup just long endurance courses and try to get the obstacles as close to previous things that they’ve had as I possibly [could]. One of the good things about Ninja and Vegas is they have similar obstacles. So even though they switch out, they’re replacement things that are similar and just slightly harder versions of certain obstacles. I would set up replicas of previous courses and try to switch it up a little bit, try to do slightly different versions and slightly harder versions of everything. Sadly, I fell on the second to last obstacle of stage three in my rookie season, so coming back and having those last two obstacles be different was definitely terrifying to not have done those things before. We don’t get to do those obstacles until we’re up there on the course.
Photo Credit: Elizabeth Morris/NBC
Much has been made of the fact that you have cerebral palsy. Are you going to go out into the community and do some speaking to help inspire others?
I’ve thought about that a little bit. I’ve received a lot of messages and a lot of people reaching out that have CP and have told me how inspiring my story is and how my success has inspired them to learn how to walk for people that are wheelchair bound. Seeing the inspiration that I’ve been able to give people with my story and the success that I’ve had has been amazing. I’ve definitely considered doing some public speaking, but we’ll see about it.
What initially got you interested in American Ninja Warrior?
I always grew up wanting to play sports. There were a lot of sports I tried as I was growing up. With my cerebral palsy, there were a lot of challenges with normal sports. I tried to play soccer, I tried to play baseball, but anything where I was on the field for a long time was very hard for me. Football was the one that I stuck with the most. When the other offense was on the field, I was able to take a little bit of a break. But by the end of the game, I wasn’t able to stay on the field anymore.
With Ninja, I could make my own schedule, I could train on my own terms. You’re only on the course for the amount of time that you’re running it. I saw it on TV, I thought it was cool and I started training for it and realized this was more of a possibility for me to do long-term and for me to succeed at. I started having real fun with it and I started getting good, so I stuck with it.
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Does size matter? Hosts Matt Iseman and Akbar Gbajabiamila were talking about he’s too big, he’s 170 pounds. But then they say he has the arm span that helps. Or when someone’s smaller, they say they’re going to make it through because they’re not going to tire themselves out because they weigh less. Which is it?
I think the ideal for size in Ninja is probably around 5-feet 9-inches. That’s where most of the really good people are able to succeed because they have that reach but they’re also able to stay lean and light. It’s important to have a certain body type, but if you don’t, you can still make do and find adjustments. I’m 5-feet 6-inches, so I’m on the shorter side, but I’m able to make up for it in power. I can still get up the Mega Wall. I can still do that because I have a lot of power in my legs and I can adjust for that height difference. With the rope climb, I don’t have as big of a reach, but I have that power and I’m able to pull just as quickly as anybody else. Height is a little bit important because most good ninjas are in a certain body type, but there’s a lot of good ones outside of that that are able to make up for those differences.
Photo Credit: Elizabeth Morris/NBC
Do you get to take a break from training? Or is training something you do all year?
There’s actually a whole entire year between seasons. That’s the rough part about Ninja, is that once you compete in Vegas, if you come up short, you have to dedicate your whole entire life to it for a whole other year for another chance that it doesn’t work out. It’s very hard having it that far apart.
What do you do when you’re not training?
That is a good question. I’ve dedicated my entire life to Ninja, so the time that I’m not doing Ninja, I’m watching other people’s runs. The times that I’m not on the course and training, I’m watching footage of other people doing Ninja and I’m studying how body functions, studying the right way to train, studying what to eat, everything like that.
Maybe you can coach other people?
That’s the goal eventually. I definitely want to coach at some point. I’m working on an online course that I want to release eventually that has the basics of Ninja, how to do certain obstacles and the correct way that your body should move throughout things. I’m hoping that makes a big difference.
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