The winner of ‘American Ninja Warrior’ is an 18-year-old with cerebral palsy

When Vance Walker, 18, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, doctors told his parents he would have to wear leg braces for the rest of his life, and that he would never be an athlete.

He just won "American Ninja Warrior."

The 18-year-old, who was bullied in school because he has cerebal palsy, vividly remembers the first time he saw the show, a competition that tests the limits of human physicality, airing on NBC.

"It was Kevin Bull doing a backflip off the Cannonball Alley which at the time was the coolest thing I had ever seen," Vance, who is from Texas and now lives in Florida, tells TODAY.com.

"I was like, 'I need to see what this is,'" Vance adds. "'I need to try this out.'"

Vance Walker also recalls the painful physical therapy, stretches and leg braces he endured as a child after he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at 18 months old.

"It was just a constant, constant battle," Vance says. "I had to wear those braces until I was around 6 or 7 years old. Since then ... I have to spend around 30 minutes to an hour a day stretching out my legs and making sure they're loose enough to walk."

When Vance was diagnosed, his mother, Stacey Walker, says doctors said her son would never be able to play sports.

"We were told he'd have to wear (the braces) for the rest of his life," Stacey Walker, 49, tells TODAY.com. "(They) said he probably wouldn't be able to be athletic."

So when Vance told his parents he was going to do local American Ninja Warrior competitions and eventually made it onto the show, they were apprehensive.

"I remember ... watching the show with him and watching previous winners," Kent Walker, Vance's dad, tells TODAY.com. "You could see him just dreaming that one day he would achieve that, never really thinking that he would but thinking that he could."

Vance defied the odds the doctors gave him when he was just 18 months old and won “American Ninja Warrior” Season 15.

(Disclosure: “American Ninja Warrior” airs on NBC, the parent company of TODAY.com.)

“I’m so used having to work harder than everybody else — I’m accustomed to doing whatever it takes to achieve a goal,” Vance says. “I think all those struggles as a kid really prepared me for working as hard as I possibly could, having a goal and doing whatever it takes to get there.”

‘That’s the way he was made’

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cerebral palsy is a non-curable neurological disease caused by abnormal brain development or damage to the developing brain that affects the muscles.

When Vance's mom was pregnant, she went into pre-term labor at just 17 weeks. She spent months in the hospital until her son was born at 36 weeks.

"For so many weeks (the doctors) would come in and say: 'He's not going to make it. He's not going to make it,'" she recalls. "Starting at 20-something weeks, it was: 'OK, he could make it, but he could have brain damage. He could be blinded.'"

Vance did make it, and had full cognitive function. After he turned 1, his parents noticed he wasn't walking. When he started standing, his knees would bend awkwardly and his toes curled underneath his feet.

Shortly after, Vance was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

"Initially, it was just (the) fear of how it's going to affect him ... and his future," Kent says. "It was about what we could do to help him feel 'normal' so that he has all the same opportunities that everyone else has."

When Vance went to school, they say, bullies made fun of him for his braces or how he walked. Vance would walk around the track at his school alone while other children were in groups with their friends. At lunch time, he ate alone.

"People would ask him: 'What's wrong with you?' That was the biggest issue," Stacey says. "I wanted to say to people: 'There's nothing wrong with him. That's the way he was made.'"

Vance credits his parents' support and encouragement for making it through those difficult years of bullying. When he was 13, his parents allowed him to go to school online so he could focus on "American Ninja Warrior" training.

"I've been very grateful to have very supportive parents," Vance says. "They've always been alongside me every step along the way, helping me to get the best support, best coaching, best physical therapy — just the best everything I could possibly have."

'Competing on the show is absolutely terrifying'

During the difficult times, watching their son compete on "American Ninja Warrior" would have felt like an impossibility to Kent and Stacey. Watching their son win, however, felt like an inevitably, especially for the kid who kept defying the odds.

"There's probably not a Ninja out there who has worked harder than he has to get to where is," Kent says. "Seeing him work so hard to be able to accomplish his dream is just — you can't describe it. It's amazing, and we're just so proud."

Stacey says it can be hard to watch her son compete.

"I know the pain that he is in, and I know what he has to do before he can go out there and even show up," she says. "Right now I'm sitting here next to him, and his legs are just twitching — like there are aliens in his lower legs — and they do that constantly. There were times when his legs hurt so badly that he couldn't sleep.

"It's not just that he won, it's that he has conquered so much just to even have the chance to win," she adds.

Vance says competing on the show isn't easy, both physically and mentally.

"Competing on the show is absolutely terrifying, because these courses are massive," Vance says. "When you're on the obstacles you're standing 20 feet above the ground and those pools, they're pretty far below you."

Vance and his parents are grateful for the community of friends "American Ninja Warrior" has created for Vance — the kid who at one time was bullied and left to eat lunch at school alone.

"Without the support of the Ninja community, he definitely wouldn't be where he is today," Kent says. "It's such a positive support system."

Looking back at all he has endured, overcome, and now accomplished, Vance says there's one thing he would like to tell his younger self if he ever had the chance.

"I would tell my younger self to just keep going and remember why you're doing this," he says. "That's what made me keep going in those hard times — I knew what I was working for."

This article was originally published on TODAY.com