On July 16, Kacy Catanzaro, a 24-year-old New Jersey native and former gymnast, shattered a glass ceiling you likely didn’t know existed. She became the first woman ever to qualify for the American Ninja Warrior finals.
I’m not a fan of American Ninja Warrior. In fact, I only tuned in the night that Catanzaro achieved fame because the show happened to be the least stupid thing on TV. And that’s saying something. Because for the first half hour, American Ninja Warrior appeared to be a competition in which muscle-bound men grimace and flex as they work their way through a ridiculously difficult obstacle course.
But then I saw Catanzaro. A woman! She looked fit, but tiny. Could she complete the course? “It’s a really tall order for someone who is five feet tall and weighs just a 100 pounds,” said one announcer ominously.
He needn’t have worried. Catanzaro turned out to be a powerhouse. For a full seven minutes, my eyes stayed glued to the screen. I gasped when she almost fell off the ring toss; I cheered as she flung herself up the salmon ladder; and I held my breath as she picked her way across a field of widely spaced poles. When she spider-climbed her way up to the finish line, I had to choke back tears. She MADE it. Kacy Catanzano was going to the American Ninja finals in Las Vegas, baby. This was momentous. Had I had a bottle of champagne, I might have popped the cork. Even days later, I couldn’t stop thinking about her performance.
The appeal is easy to explain: Seeing women pitted against men is a rare occurrence in sports. Men compete against men, and women against women. That’s the way the world works. And sex segregation makes a lot of sense. Men are (on average) taller, faster, and stronger. But while segregation may save women from being perpetually benched and bested, it also reinforces the already pervasive message that women can’t compete with men, that our physiological short straw has doomed us to never being better than second best in athletic endeavors.
And that message is not only destructive, it’s also inaccurate. David Epstein, author of The Sports Gene, points out that women may be better than men at some sports, like ski jumping. And would men really have a physical advantage over women in, say, badminton? Or curling? Or archery? Why not integrate those?
Until that happens, I’m ecstatic to see women competing against — and beating — men on network television, even if it is within the confines of a silly ninja competition. For every girl struggling to do a pull-up, Catanzaro can be a role model. Do I wish that Kacy’s team logo didn’t look like something you might find on the mudflap of a semi? Yes. But I can forgive her. Because she serves as a much-needed reminder that women’s bodies can be as strong and capable as we train them to be.
Watched all seven minutes, can’t believe I did that, really can’t believe she did it. I’ll bring the champagne, you get the glasses.
“Men are (on average) taller, faster, and stronger.”
“And would men really have a physical advantage over women in, say, badminton?”
If you spend a minute or two watching clips from professional games (on YouTube, say), you’ll understand why the answer is, quite emphatically, yes! I don’t know enough about curling or archery to comment on those, however.