Women are making headway in the sports and fitness sphere every day, but perhaps none in such spectacular fashion as Jessie Graff.
Graff is a 32-year-old stuntwoman from California, and her most recent athletic endeavour saw her take up a place on Team USA in American Ninja Warrior – which is essentially the professional version of Total Wipeout but where the audience doesn’t want competitors to fall off the big red balls.
Graff just became the first woman ever to complete the second stage of this gruelling obstacle course, and you can watch her blistering run below:
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Between her gravity-defining upper body strength and her balanced, calm demeanour, Graff absolutely nails the course to cheers from the crowd. It marked the first time a woman had ever reached this stage in the challenge.
But, that was only the first half. Jessie, who’s been dubbed the real life Wonder Woman, quickly recovers and heads out onto the Butterfly Run.
You can watch what happens next below:
[ooyal[ooyala code=”gxOXJoYjE60alnTl20fXk5u7iPKgb4Ry” player_id=”5df2ff5a35d24237905833bd032cd5d8" auto=”true” width=”1920" height=”1080" pcode=”twa2oyOnjiGwU8-cvdRQbrVTiR2l”]p>After defeating the brutal Double Wedge obstacle – which has apparently been wiping out competitors since day – and then lifting walls weighing 135lbs, Jessie Graff makes history with ‘her story’.
We want this woman on our team, if and when the patriotically – but ominously – titled American Ninja Warrior: USA vs. The World becomes more than just a TV show.
Take a bow, Jessie, and keep breaking down those barriers. American Ninja Warrior returns Monday 12 June on NBC.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.