On Monday night's finals competition in Las Vegas, where contestants tried to complete stage one of Mt. Midoriyama, this year's sensation Kacy Catanzaro - #mightykacy - was eliminated on just the fourth obstacle, the dreaded "Jumping Spider." She was strong enough, fast enough, skilled enough, disciplined enough ... she just wasn't tall enough. And that's just wrong. Catanzaro, a skilled gymnast who was a national champion in college, stands just five feet tall. And that wingspan did not offer her an even field on which to compete in an obstacle course where she bested numerous stronger and taller men in the city finals.
The American Ninja Warrior competition should be accessible to people who are strong enough and skilled enough. Granted, there are numerous challenges and obstacles that can be easier or more difficult based on height, weight, and strength. Certainly, a larger person faces greater difficulty in any "pull up" or grip-sensitive exercise simply because he/she has more weight to lift and hold. But that can be managed through discipline, training, and brute strength. The jumping spider challenge - which requires contestants to brace their arms between two walls and "scale" them - is simply impossible for a person who is only five feet tall.
Her jump was clean. He landing was balanced. She did nothing wrong in sticking the landing. All the mistakes that eliminated other contestants don't apply to Kacy. She is just too short to reach the walls with any leverage to complete the challenge. And that is just wrong.
7 comments:
I said the exact same thing last night! The idea that she would not be able to reach at all BUT still be disqualified felt very unfair. She definitely landed that jump and would have most almost certainly succeeded had her arms...I don't know.."grown" longer? The course needs to be reworked for those type of circumstances or else there might as well be a height and/or arm length requirement; even that doesn't feel right.
I have to agree. How are you to complete a course that required both hands and feet when your hand can't reach the wall. They need to adjust the walls to the person height. You should post this on her facebook.
I agree. I've been warching Ninja Warrior for many years and this the first time I thought the course was unfair. It's not about her being a woman. It's biased against her being short. I knew going into the jumping spider that she wouldn't be able to make that stretch. I wish they could adjust it somehow, based on arm length or something. She definitely could've made it then... and all the obstacles after that. An amazing athlete.
I recorded it from Monday evening and watched it last night. I agree she certainly would have had the spider wall licked had it not been for the arm span issue, and felt it was unfair. They may have to do without the spider wall altogether, because if they make it narrower, it may make it be too easy for most of the other contestants. But then again, making it narrower may make it more challenging in other ways. I dunno.....
There are only a few obstacles that are limited based on a persons height/reach. All they would need is, for those specific obstacles, two parallel obstacles. You could film them from two different sides, from the left for the shorter contestants, and the usual right side for the taller contestants. So, despite what some people say, it would not be to cost prohibitive to do this. For the spider wall, you just mount one of the walls on track that you move in 6 inches for shorter contestants and lock in place. That way you have a fair competition that can move along quickly (for the sake of TV). Since the show has not yet paid out any money to anyone, nobody can say they wouldn't have the funds to do this. They just have to plan the obstacle courses for each city not to have more than one height/reach restricting obstacle and then for that one, just have one side for say 4'8"-5'6 and the other side for 5'9" to 6'4". The only other option is to explicitly put size limits on the competition so that people don't waste their time training and getting on the show only to realize that they never had a chance from day 1 (like Kacy).
Why have the competition at all? They could simply measure people and who ever has the correct size can win. The way it was designed specifically to eliminate people with short wing spans has nothing to do with athleticism. They could also make the spider jump 12 feet wide and see how all of the contestants do. Sorry this made me mad. I am not going to watch anymore.
From: http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/09/03/kacy-catanzaro-doomed-american-ninja-warrior/
"When reached for comment, NBC’s Ninja Warrior production team defended the fairness of the course, pointing out the 4-foot-wide Jumping Spider walls — assuming a contestant vaults deep enough into the obstacle — are the exact same width apart as the Spider Climb from the semi-finals course where the contestants simply ascend vertically (an obstacle Catanzaro has previously conquered in her stunning Dallas finals video)."
They also said that there are obstacles where it is harder for heavier people to complete too. Your statement is ridiculous, should the obstacles be dumbed down so that everyone can do them? Even the morbidly obese? Because otherwise would mean there is a weight limit right? The balance obstacles are also harder on taller people, should this be dumbed down for them too?
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