S.F. teenager becomes junior ninja warrior on television.
The fake boulders resemble an assortment of peculiar jelly beans, but where some might see an unscalable wall, Abbie Cheng sees a puzzle. Devising a strategy on where to contort, leap and grab is part of the fun for the 13-year-old competitive rock climber set to make her national TV debut.
Abbie is not Spiderwoman, but she could be the way she swings and scrambles up and down the climbing walls at San Francisco’s Planet Granite gym.
“It is a mental and physical challenge,” Abbie said. “I can push myself to be creative while on the wall.” Dangling from teeny-tiny artificial rocks turned out to be perfect practice for Abbie’s summer role on “American Ninja Warrior Junior,” a spin-off of the popular obstacle course-based reality television show created in Japan.
The show, which premieres at 7 p.m. Saturday on Universal Kids, NBC’s children’s cable channel, features smaller versions of the adult course’s iconic obstacles, such as the Warped Wall, a curved wall that contestants have to run up and climb, and Tic Toc, a trapeze swingand-pendulum hybrid that forces contestants to fly off and snag a cargo net. Abbie’s favorite challenge on the show was the floating shelf grab, where she made big jumps as she climbed down. She can’t divulge any other details about what happened until the show finishes airing. What the upbeat teen and only
San Francisco contestant on the show can say is that she never dreamed she’d be competing as an American Ninja Warrior.
Her standout resume, however, suggests this was only a matter of time.
In addition to performing with the Young Woman Choral Projects of San Francisco and being an award-winning artist — a design she drew several years ago garnered citywide recognition as a public library card — Abbie also had a short stint as a gymnast before turning her attention to the mountainside.
Two years ago she started trekking from the Sunset District to Planet Granite twice a week. She got into the sport after attending her friends’ birthday parties at Bay Area rock climbing gyms, and her mom, Tina, noticed she was a natural.
“When they get to know her a little better and what she can actually do on a wall, it’s pretty amazing,” Tina Cheng said. “She’s a hard worker and so she accomplishes much because of that.” It was all uphill from there. Abbie joined the competitive climbing team last year, and her coach, Jesse Schouboe, noticed she’s not the kind of athlete to give up easily. If anything, Abbie laughs off failure and tries again.
“Her ability to stay positive is pretty unique,” Schouboe said.
Although rock climbing is a solo sport, he added, Abbie is seen as a team player and role model for many younger girls on the team.
In March, Schouboe forwarded the “American Ninja Warrior Junior” application to team climbers. Abbie applied, even though she’d never seen the show and had just torn a ligament in a finger. For a few weeks, she was climbing with one arm.
A couple of weeks later, producers contacted the Chengs and asked for more climbing videos and proof that Abbie had healed enough to tackle the course. Abbie once again proved she was up to the task and NBC told her filming would begin in July.
Abbie and her mom left their summer vacation in Europe a day early to fly back to San Francisco and then down to Los Angeles. As if the experience wasn’t “nerve-racking” enough, her grandparents were there to watch the competition from the sidelines.
Going head-to-head with other competitors on the course was the biggest challenge, Abbie said, but she didn’t let it get her down.
“Her level of emotional resilience, maturity, focus and positivity are all things that are not very common in kids her age as far as I’ve seen,” Schouboe said.
Rock climbing provides a rush of adrenaline for Abbie, who’s often going up sheer cliff faces almost nine times her height. What drives her when she’s finding the next foothold isn’t athletic prowess or flexibility, but rather the chance to prove she can climb just about anything, especially when all eyes are watching.
Gwendolyn Wu is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: gwendolyn.wu@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @gwendolynawu
“It is a mental and physical challenge. I can push myself to be creative.” Abbie Cheng