Search UT

One day, when she was 10 years old, Jess Wombles ’28 walked into a friend’s house to a yell from her friend’s parents. “Oh my gosh, Jess, you should try this,” they said, referring to her gymnastics background. 

They were captivated by what they were watching on TV, a game-show-like obstacle-course competition where contestants sprinted, jumped, swung and climbed from one obstacle to the next before most fell into a pool of water. 

The show was American Ninja Warrior, and little did Wombles know at the time, it would change her life.

Wombles is now a film and media arts major at UTampa, and a veteran American Ninja Warrior competitor. She made it to the semi-finals of the current season and has been invited back to compete in Season 18, which begins filming this fall and will air in 2026.

Season 17 was her third time competing as an adult, after being a part of American Ninja Warrior Junior Season 3. She’s called “Sky Ninja” on the show, thanks to her early experience flying airplanes alongside her airline pilot dad, starting at just age 9.

Wombles said her dad constructed a ninja course under their deck soon after that day in her friend’s living room. Practicing on that course’s two obstacles became her routine. Not long after that, she had a fortuitous run-in with an American Ninja Warrior athlete, Lance Pekus, known as the “Cowboy Ninja,” at the Denver airport.

“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s him!’” said Wombles. 

She told him she wanted to be a ninja someday. His response? 

“Go find a gym. Hopefully, I’ll see you on the show soon,” Wombles remembers.

By age 12, Wombles walked into her first ninja kids class at a gym in Indianapolis.

“I just thought, This is my place. This is where I’m supposed to be,” she said.

Two years later, she competed on American Ninja Warrior Junior, racing against a competitor who was coached by Pekus, who remembered their interaction.

“It was such a full-circle moment,” said Wombles.

Filming took place in Los Angeles, and Wombles recalls it being a dream come true.

“It’s shaped me into the person that I am now, and it’s become a big part of my personality,” Wombles said. “That junior experience (of being on set) is the reason why I chose film and media arts as a major.”

Less than a year after her junior appearance, when she was 15, Wombles competed on Season 14 of the adult version of American Ninja Warrior. Behind her excitement, there were even bigger nerves.

“I remember they told me that I was on deck, so I was about to go up,” she said. “And I just dropped (to the ground)." 

Producers rushed in, and Wombles was given the option to step out. But she didn’t. 

She said, “Every producer stopped, and they all clapped that I was going to go, because they've never had someone get that insanely nervous and not back out.”

Once Wombles was on stage, her nerves faded away. She passed two obstacles before falling on the balance obstacle.

Two years later, Wombles appeared on Season 16. She again fell on a balance obstacle, one with six spinning balls that required contestants to be light on their feet, or they would swing into the other balls.

The following season, at 18 years old, Wombles was competing as an adult for the first time, working longer hours and no longer being taken off set for extended periods. She was able to stay until the end of the runs.

Wombles ran at 3 a.m., getting past the balance obstacle for the first time, reaching past the battering ramp and securing a place in the semifinals. The battering ramp obstacle requires competitors to hang from a series of heavy, sliding cylinders and transfer from one to the next along a track.

“I was just so excited because I never made it to the semifinals before,” said Wombles. “They didn’t end up showing my run this time for some reason, but people do get cut.” 

Wombles has no plans to stop training or competing on the show, having recently been chosen for Season 18, taking place in Las Vegas. Her main goal is to complete a qualifying course, hit her first buzzer and make it to the finals.

“Instead of just hoping to complete something, I want to push for my name out there,” she said.

“I was 15, and I got one of my biggest dreams,” Wombles added. “If there’s something that you’re passionate about, then there’s no reason not to go for it.”