After getting cut 4 times, this Utah mom finally got to share her story on ‘American Ninja Warrior’

Before swinging her body through the air on the “American Ninja Warrior” obstacle course, Jenedy Paige stood at the start line with her husband and kids, holding up high a painting of her 3-year-old son, Victory Morgan, that she had made not long after he died from a drowning accident more than a decade ago.

She then lowered the painting and tightly wrapped her arms around her family. As they hugged, the portrait of Victory was still in the center, still in focus.

No matter where she’s lived, that painting has always had a place in the entry of her home, right at the front door.

Now, temporarily, it was on the set of “American Ninja Warrior,” joining her cheering family on the sidelines as she ran the qualifying course for the show’s 17th season.

With the name Victory written in capital letters on her left arm, the 40-year-old artist from Pleasant Grove, Utah, almost made it through the third obstacle of the six-obstacle course before splashing down and ending her time on Season 17.

Paige may not be in the running to win this season of “American Ninja Warrior,” which concludes Monday night, but her time on the show marked a significant personal victory because she was finally able to share her story with viewers — a message she’s been trying to share on “ANW” for a while.

Although this season marked the first time Paige officially appeared on “ANW,” it was actually her fifth time competing. She’s been competing since 2019, but the show has never aired her run — until now.

To watch it all unfold, I just wept. You just see all of these years, from the loss and the brokenness to God recreating you into a different, better version of yourself.

—  Jenedy Paige

As she watched her “ANW” run finally play out on TV earlier this summer, she didn’t just see herself in that moment. She saw everything leading up to it — a physical, spiritual and mental refining that got her to this place that years ago would’ve seemed unreachable.

“I’m just kind of holding my breath, and then to watch it all unfold, I just wept,” Paige recently told the Deseret News. “You just see all of these years, from the loss and the brokenness to God recreating you into a different, better version of yourself.”

‘Let’s do this, Mom’

Perhaps no one is more shocked to be a five-time “American Ninja Warrior” competitor than Paige.

Growing up, the artist described herself as more of a “nerdy musician” type than an athlete.

But in 2011, when her 3-year-old son died after drowning in a swimming pool, she started searching for a new outlet to channel her grief. She already knew painting to be cathartic, but she needed more.

When her family moved to Utah in 2015, she began working out at a nearby gym and gradually started building up her strength in mom fitness classes. That eventually led to rock climbing. Not long after that, while at the gym, an unexpected thought popped into her head: She should try out for “American Ninja Warrior.”

“That’s weird,” she recalled thinking, since she believed her only qualification to be that she had watched “ANW” with her husband.

“When I felt that feeling, I just kind of brushed it away,” Paige said. “But I’ve just learned in my life that God is really persistent with me, and if I ignore him, then he will keep telling me the same thing until I listen.”

The thought kept coming back, so she knew what she had to do.

Paige filmed an application video at Airborne, a trampoline park in Lindon, since there weren’t any ninja-themed gyms in her area at the time.

“As I went to start, all of a sudden I felt my son, who had passed away, and I felt him say, ‘Let’s do this, Mom,’” Paige recalled. “It was totally unexpected. I didn’t anticipate to feel him there, but then as soon as he said that, I was like, ‘Well, let’s freaking go,’ because I’ve got an angel on my side. And then I went through it, and I did the whole thing — all this stuff I had never done before.

“In that moment, because I felt my son with me, all that hesitation and the fear, it just left.”

After filming her submission video, where she surprised herself by completing stunts she never imagined doing, she looked at her husband.

“Maybe I could be a ninja,” she said.

A powerful lesson

A few months later, Paige got the exciting call from a casting producer, inviting her to compete on the show.

She made her “ANW” debut in Tacoma, Washington, and surprised herself by reaching the fourth obstacle of the course — an impressive feat for a then-34-year-old mom of four’s rookie season.

As she competed, she said, she did so with a sense of conviction, believing she knew exactly why God had led her to this moment.

“I thought, ‘I know, it’s because I lost a son, and I was totally broken, and God put me back together, and he wants me to share about that on national TV.’ That’s why I’m here,” she recalled.

Paige was excited when she returned home from filming, but couldn’t disclose to her curious friends how she had done because she’d signed an NDA. She assured them, though, that they would be able to see it for themselves when it aired.

“And then all of that anticipation ended in a really depressing email from the casting producer that said, ‘Oh, Jenedy, you did really great for your rookie season, but you competed with too many celebrities, and we don’t have time for you, sorry,’” Paige said.

“It was just like the biggest letdown,” she continued. “I remember when I read that email just crying, because I really put myself out there, and I thought I was going to be in this really faith-promoting experience. And then it just all seemed like it didn’t even matter, like nobody was going to see it, like it didn’t happen.”

But for all of the disappointment, Paige still felt like she needed to keep training, to stay with “American Ninja Warrior.”

So every week she would go to the gym and try to conquer one obstacle, focusing on one thing she could improve on. And then the next week she would shift her focus to something else.

“ANW” invited Paige to compete again the following year. And the year after that. And the year after that.

In 2023, her fourth season competing, the artist had a hard time accepting that the show would again not be featuring her run.

“I’m just mad at this point,” she said, noting how her qualifications for the show had grown over the years to include becoming a coach at the Ninja Playground in Lehi, and also competing at the World Ninja Finals.

But then, she said, she felt a strong message from God that completely shifted her perspective.

“God was kind of like, ‘Oh wait, Jenedy, did you think this was about TV? Did you know I actually care way more about the development of an individual than I do about TV?’” she recalled. “‘Look at yourself: You are a completely different person than you were four years ago, and I needed you to become a different person. I needed you to become a stronger person. This was just a path that I gave you to help you become a stronger person.’”

It was a powerful lesson — one she said she’ll never forget.

At first she thought that message would serve as an exclamation mark of sorts, bringing a dynamic end to her time on “American Ninja Warrior.”

That my son’s name was Victory, that really motivated me to keep trying.

—  Jenedy Paige

When Season 17 rolled around, though, she found herself wanting to compete again — but this time it was with no expectations. She just wanted to take part in a sport she had grown to love.

“And that my son’s name was Victory, that really motivated me to keep trying,” she said.

A stamp of ‘Victory’ on ‘American Ninja Warrior’

Paige had a feeling Season 17 would be different.

“ANW” filmed her run last September — 13 years to the day that she pulled her son out of a swimming pool.

A couple of months later, she got a call from the show saying that her run would finally be shown. That message came on Nov. 12 — 13 years to the day that her son died.

“It just seemed like his little stamp on this whole thing,” Paige said.

Although her Season 17 run wasn’t the best of her “ANW” career, the artist says she was proud of the outcome.

In featuring her run, she said the show actually pieced together footage from all of her different submission videos over the years. It was like watching a timeline of her story — her grief, her transformation, her healing.

“You grieve differently in different years,” she said. “My son would be 17 now — I would have this big teenager, and he’s not here, and so I kind of feel like doing these videos every year is just kind of like another stepping stone, helping me process my grief. … I feel like these videos kind of offered me that opportunity to find a new purpose in my grief every year.”

Since her run aired, Paige said she has received emails and messages from viewers who were touched by her story. It meant a lot to her, and in somewhat of a full-circle moment, it brought her back to her “American Ninja Warrior” debut six years earlier.

“The thing that’s really beautiful to me is that I originally wanted to be on TV to share my story, to be some kind of beacon of light to some other parent out there that’s lost a kid, and I got exactly what I wanted,” she said. “Even though I didn’t get the buzzer in a moment of glory, NBC still gave me almost 5 minutes of their time, and showed my art and the story of my son. And so even though it didn’t look exactly like what I had hoped for, it was still such a gift.”

So now that she finally got airtime, and finally got to share her story with viewers, will she return to “American Ninja Warrior”?

She’s already made her submission video for Season 18.

“If they’ll let me, I’ll keep coming back,” she said.