Vance Walker

Vance Walker is a high school sophomore from Marietta, Georgia who calls himself the "Walker Texas Ninja", because he originated from Texas, living there for some time in his life before, now living in Georgia.

He has also faced challenges with cerebral palsy, which he was diagnosed with at 18 months old.

Before he competed on American Ninja Warrior 13, he was on both American Ninja Warrior Junior 1 and 2 for the 13-14 age group where he impressively won every single race he was in and was the winner for that age group both times.

His individual race record over the two seasons was 14-0.

Vance revealed on Instagram that he was called to compete on American Ninja Warrior 12 due to the producers planning to drop the age requirement that year. Unfortunately, as a result of modifications made due to the pandemic, the younger competitors were cut, so he had to wait another year.

American Ninja Warrior 13
Vance was to compete as a 16-year-old in the third qualifying round of American Ninja Warrior 13 due to the lowered age limit. He once again impressed as he not only cleared the qualifying course, but he also become both the youngest and shortest competitor at 5'5' to clear the Mega Wall, placing 10th overall, and moving on to the semifinals.

In the semifinals, he impressed everyone with clearing the course with the fastest time of the night with a time of 4:17.90 beating Josiah Pippels respectable time of 5:26.21. On the Power Tower hopes were high for Vance, they both were neck and neck to start until the Dropping Shelves when Vance went to the side and got a 1 shelf lead and hit the buzzer earning him the safety pass.

In the national finals, he put up another impressive run on Stage 1, impressing everyone as he still kept his perfect streak alive, clearing Stage 1 and having his Safety Pass saved. On Stage 2, he failed the Double Salmon Ladder, ending his perfect streak on obstacles. However, because he still had the Safety Pass, he was granted another shot at Stage 2. On his second attempt, he was able to correct his mistake on the Double Salmon Ladder, and made the most of his second chance. On Hammer Drop, he had a close call when he somehow banged his head while jumping onto the pendulum, and failed to grasp the left handle but fortunately Vance was able to save it with his feet, and climb to safety to the next obstacle. He then became the first and only ninja of the second night of the national finals to clear the Falling Shelves then Vance cleared stage 2 with 5.28 seconds remaining.

He then was one of four to attempt Stage Three and because he had the slowest time out of the four who completed Stage 2 he went first and although he went extremely far into Stage 3, he fell on the Eyeglass Alley. He made it the third furthest in that season of American Ninja Warrior, only behind Austin Gray and Kaden Lebsack. He has the second best rookie attempt in American Ninja Warrior history only being beaten by Kaden Lebsack who was the final runner on Stage 3.

American Ninja Warrior 14
Vance returned for the first round of qualifying where he hoped to hit all six buzzers already emerging as one of the favorites to win the million dollars flying across the first four obstacles even getting Matt Iseman to say: “I would be hard pressed to put someone ahead of Vance Walker to win that million dollars.” However, he ultimately failed the Salmon Roll after failing to clear the one-foot gap. Despite this, he placed 18th and advance to the semifinals.

Trivia

 * He is the first competitor with cerebral palsy to compete on both American Ninja Warrior Junior and American Ninja Warrior.
 * Prior to competing on any ninja competition, he says that he has been training on a 23-foot tall Warped Wall, which made him able to scale the Mega Wall with ease on his first time competing. [2].
 * He is also the seventh rookie in American Ninja Warrior history and the first teenager to complete Stage Two.
 * His qualifying run was voted on American Ninja Warrior Nation as the best buzzer.