Idaho Falls native reaches “American Ninja Warriors” finals

An Idaho Falls native has made it to the finals of the “American Ninja Warrior” TV show.

Mady Howard succeeded in the semi-finals in Tacoma and now moves on to the Las Vegas finals.

“I was so excited making it into the finals,” Howard said. “Like I honestly didn’t expect it going into it, but I couldn’t be more excited.”

Howard’s journey to Ninja Warrior success began at an early age in Idaho Falls.

“When I was less than a year old I was walking on the back of couches and that’s when my grandpa knew I would be a gymnast, and then I started competing when I was six years old and I just fell in love with it.” Howard said. “I loved being there with my coaches. They were like family to me and my teammates as well.”

Eventually Mady made the gymnastics team at Southern Utah University in St. George where she lives now.

“College gymnastics was my goal all through my life and that was something I’d been working for, and once I was done with that I felt a void there, and so I found a local ninja gym in our area and went and tried it out, and it used a lot of those same skills I had used in gymnastics, so I fell in love with it and I knew it would be a good fit,” Howard said.

Several people at the gym applied to be on the show and Howard got selected. She says it’s been a growing experience.

“And one thing that I’ve learned from both “American Ninja Warrior” and gymnastics is that if you’re not failing, you’re not pushing yourself hard enough and so it’s just taking that and growing from that experience.”

The semi-final “American Ninja Warrior” will be re-run August 9 at 9 p.m. The finals will air August 26th. It’s already been filmed but Howard is sworn to secrecy about the results. You can follow Howard’s journey at her Instagram account @mady_Howard.