'Ninja' star Catanzaro becomes overnight Internet sensation

San Antonio's Kacy Catanzaro competes on "American Ninja Warrior" on NBC. San Antonio's Kacy Catanzaro competes on "American Ninja Warrior" on NBC. Photo: Esquire Network, NBCU Photo Bank Via Getty Images Photo: Esquire Network, NBCU Photo Bank Via Getty Images Image 1 of / 84 Caption Close 'Ninja' star Catanzaro becomes overnight Internet sensation 1 / 84 Back to Gallery

SAN ANTONIO — On its own, the last obstacle didn't worry Kacy Catanzaro.

The “spider climb” required her to scurry up a tower using walls set 4 feet apart. It would take every inch of her 5-foot frame. But so does every other obstacle on an “American Ninja Warrior” course, and she'd already tackled nine of them.

She made obstacle No. 10 look as simple as the nine before it.

“Once I felt secure, I started flying up,” said Catanzaro, who lives and trains in San Antonio.

After she capped the run by slamming the final buzzer, Brent Steffensen — an “American Ninja Warrior” veteran and her boyfriend and coach — scaled the tower to congratulate her.

“I hit the buzzer about four times to make sure I really hit it and I wasn't just dreaming,” Catanzaro said. “I couldn't have asked for a better moment to share with him up there.”

Her successful run in the Dallas regionals made her the first woman to qualify for the finals of the popular reality series, an extreme obstacle-course race inspired by a hit Japanese television show.

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And just like that, she was the next Internet sensation.

During her run, an announcer called the former collegiate gymnast a “superstar.” By the time she climbed down from that tower, the world knew her name.

The 24-year-old from New Jersey set the social media world ablaze July 14, when her run aired on NBC. The hashtag #mightykacy trended worldwide on Twitter. More than 100 websites ranging from Slate to Deadspin posted the video of her successful run, and outlets such as Time and Cosmopolitan clamored for interviews soon after.

Catanzaro went to sleep after the episode aired with 8,000 followers on her Instagram account. By the next morning, she was up to 13,000. By Thursday she eclipsed 25,000. The video of her run racked up 4 million views in two days.

The overnight Internet fame caught Catanzaro off guard.

“I knew I would hopefully gain some fans and inspire some people, but I had no idea how many people would want to know more about me and my story,” Catanzaro said.

Catanzaro's success in Dallas sent her toward “Mount Midoriyama,” a four-stage course in Las Vegas that no American has completed.

“Kacy is one of the few individuals I can see finishing this whole course,” said Steffensen, who became the first American to reach the third stage, in 2012. “The toughest things for her are what she has already done.”

No stranger to high-flying feats of athleticism, Catanzaro was a Division I gymnast at Towson University in Maryland, where she was named the Eastern College Athletic Conference Gymnast of the Year in 2012.

After her obstacle heroics pulled her into the spotlight, much of the noise around Catanzaro revolved around her gender and her height.

That's fine with her, but she said she hopes her accomplishments will be celebrated — and not just because she's a woman.

“I don't mind people talking about it because that's what I am,” Catanzaro said. “I'm a girl and I'm 5 feet tall.”

Catanzaro hopes her story will inspire women to progress in the sport.

“Once women can see what is possible for us, I think more women will be inclined to try it,” she said. “They'll want to challenge me on the course and see what they can do.”

The “American Ninja Warrior” finals air at 8 p.m. Sept. 15 on NBC, but the episode was taped in June. That means Catanzaro and Steffensen, who was eliminated in qualifying but could conceivably have earned a “wild-card” spot in the finals, know exactly how far they advanced. But they're not telling — it would be like spoiling the result of the Super Bowl, Steffensen said.

Catanzaro and Steffensen, who is from Utah, train in San Antonio as promotional athletes and partners of Alpha Warrior, a company that builds obstacle-course facilities for training or racing.

When their world quiets down and they return to San Antonio, the year-round training will resume. And even if they never reach the summit of Mount Midoriyama and claim the $500,000 prize, they'll always have the memory of the time little Kacy Catanzaro became the sensation of the summer.

“She stepped up her game and did things most men can't do,” Steffensen said. “Little 5-foot-nothing showed them how it was done.”

mdore@express-news.net

Twitter: @Mark_Dore