When Sandy Zimmerman stepped up to the American Ninja Warrior starting platform in the Tacoma Dome,a lot of viewers didn’t know who they were watching. That quickly changed. Although it was her third time on the show, she’d previously never advanced past the second obstacle. She’d fallen in season eight on Tick Tock in Los Angeles, and then on the Cannonball Drop in the same region in season 9. Season 10, she was unable to compete due to an injury.
To say the third time was a charm for Sandy is an understatement. The Tacoma Dome was a bit of a homecoming for the 42-year-old mom of three. 30 years previous, she’d won the National Judo Championship in the same location. Life had changed a lot since then for Sandy, but her determination was just a sharp as ever. Undeterred by those falls in the past, Sandy stuck to her training and came back once again.
The result made history. Sandy advanced obstacle by obstacle, even making it through the tricky Lightning Bolts that ended a bulk of the runs. She missed her first attempt at the Warped Wall, gathered her strength, and launched into a successful second attempt. The moment sent the audience into a frenzy. Sandy was now the oldest woman, and the first mother, to beat the wall on American Ninja Warrior, something she pointed out by yelling, “Mom!” from the top the wall as she hit the buzzer a second time for emphasis.
We spoke to Sandy after her historic run to learn more about just what it meant to her personally, and the work it took to bring it about.
“The first season (I competed) was season eight. I went out on Tick Tock. I just, I didn’t have the skill set. I was strong. I had been working out. But I has just been new to Ninja, so I just didn’t have the skill set for the trapeze. Season nine I went out on the Ball Drop. I didn’t have a ligament in my left thumb and I think I just slipped off of that. That was an old injury from way, way back in high school. Season 10, I was hurt. Had two knee surgeries, fixed both thumbs.
So this is my first season back where I’m healthy and it feels amazing to have everything working.”
“Before the course for me, it sounds crazy, but it kind of felt like any other Ninja comp in a way, where I always get really excited and really nervous. A mixture of both. I think for me, I don’t know if it’s just how I grew up and stuff, kind of a rough childhood, I kind of have these two voices. A little girl who grew up in a real unstable environment and is a little of that scared, timid person. Then I have the forty-two-year-old mother, badass that can rock this. I think for me, it’s just a matter of navigating those voices. At the start line I’m just remembering to listen to who you are now. Who you’ve become and what you’ve overcome. And just trying to think, what’s the strategy, what’s the first obstacle? Taking it one at a time. I’m not going to speed through it. Do what I can and try to execute what I think will get the obstacle done.”
“30 years go, I won Judo Nationals in this Tacoma Dome. It was the first time in my life where I dreamed a really big dream because my sensei said you could make it to the Olympics, after I won Nationals. I just thought, that’s not really the kind of dreams we dream. Mine was, ‘Let me get through today without getting hit or yelled at. Let me get through the day and hopefully have a good meal.’
Coming back to the Dome and having this be 30 years later, here I am dreaming another big dream, like an impossible dream. A forty-two-year-old mother of three getting through an ANW course? It’s never happened and it’s an insane dream. There are so many reasons I shouldn’t be able to do that. It was incredible standing at that Warped Wall and honestly, trying not to think of the moment and what was about to happen. This could be history.
Honestly, just reminding myself, ‘Think about your steps. Think about your steps on the wall and what you’re trying to do.”
“When I first started this crazy thing four years ago, that was one of the big goals. We have never had a mom hit the buzzer. I remember my daughter saying to me, ‘Mom, that’s really embarrassing that we’ve never had a mom hit a buzzer.’ And I thought, ‘That’s pretty cool. That my daughter thinks so highly that we need to get a mom to the buzzer.’ So four years ago that was a goal and it was in my submission video.
To be at that moment and just be overcome by that. Like, this is really happening. This happened. I got up this Warped Wall. This huge, big dream is actually happening. So to be up there and I got so excited, to yes, I thought I got to hit this again for the moms. So I hit it a second time! It’s really still unbelievable to me.”
“But for me, this has been an incredible journey. Even yesterday (Qualifiers) walking up to the start line, I was just thinking, ‘If I fall on the first obstacle, or I hit the buzzer right now, what matters is journey I’ve been on.’ How much I’ve grown. How much my family has gotten from this. My kids, all of us. All the amazing people that have come into our lives. That really is what this is about. Hopefully inspiring a whole bunch of people, a whole bunch of moms out there. Don’t let anything hold you back.
Obstacles are inevitable, and I’ve had so many of them growing up and currently these last couple of years. I just want people to see that whatever your obstacle, we can get through this. It’s not like you dream a dream and you get it tomorrow. This was four years in the making. And that’s probably short for Ninja. I feel really lucky to be here. This is an amazing experience.”
Sandy will return to the course for the Seattle/Tacoma City Finals in a few weeks!