Austin Gray

**Austin Gray** is a Ninja coach from Longmont, Colorado.

Prior to competing, Gray had given away one of his kidneys to his lifelong friend, Kaylee Adams. Kaylee had suffered from focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, a disease caused by scar tissue in the filtering unit of the kidney.

His motto is "Share Your Spare" to encourage organ donation.

## American Ninja Warrior 10

Austin first competed in Minneapolis in American Ninja Warrior 10. In qualifying, he failed to scale the Mega Wall, and was also unable to scale the regular Warped Wall. He still advanced to the city finals, placing 15th.

In the city finals, his run was digested but he fell on Iron Maiden and missed out on hitting the buzzer again. He still placed 12th overall and moved on to the national finals.

In the national finals, Austin ended up hitting his very first buzzer, finishing Stage 1 with 33.89 seconds left. He was also the first person that night to do it, as well as the first to hit a buzzer on Stage 1 during that season altogether.

However, on Stage 2, his season ended on Deja Vu, mainly due to him expanding too much energy on Epic Catch and Release.

## American Ninja Warrior 11

He returned in Tacoma for his sophomore season. He was expected by several to go farther after a breakout rookie year. However, in a shocking disbelief, he stumbled on Broken Bridge, and was unable to recover, quickly ending his sophomore season.

## American Ninja Warrior 12

Austin Gray came back to compete in American Ninja Warrior 12 for his third season. He was invited by veteran Lorin Ball this season. His run was digested, but he completed the qualifying course for the first time in his career, placing fourth despite failing the Mega Wall.

In the semifinals, his run was digested again, but he completed the course with the 3rd fastest time of the night.

In the finals, he flew through the new obstacles to once again fly through the Spider Trap and that was enough over the two nights to race on the Power Tower playoffs, placing 5th.

In the first matchup, Gray competed against Najee Richardson, but in one of the biggest shocks of the season, Austin won then moving onto the second round. He then went up against Amir Malik in the second matchup, then he won that round to make it to the championship. In the Championship round he was going against Daniel Gil in the quest of $100,000. But Gil completed the Tower faster than him, making Gil the champion of the season, thus making Gray the runner-up of the season.

## American Ninja Warrior 13

He returned to compete for his fourth season, participating in the fourth qualifying round. His run was digested, but it was shown that he failed Pretzel Twist, like many others. He still advanced to the semifinals by placing 14th. He later competed in the last semifinals episode. There, he once again cleared the semifinal course, and since he did it with the second fastest time, he was able to go to the Power Tower and race against Jake Murray. He won the race after Jake tried to go sideways on the shelf to catch up with him, and thus he got the Safety Pass.

In the national finals, his stage 1 run was digested, but he cleared the course with over 20 seconds to spare. Then, in the second stage, he managed to get past the third obstacle this time around, and was one of just four competitors to clear the second stage. It is also worth noting that he was the only Safety Pass winner who didn't need to use it that season.

On stage 3, he was looking strong, but he nearly failed on Pipe Dream when the wall tipped back on him and he had to recover. He later failed on Eyeglass Alley, when he could not transfer the second eyeglass to one of the hooks, and thus running out of energy, ending his breakout season. Since he got to the obstacle faster than Vance Walker, but was bested by Kaden Lebsack (who went on to complete stage 3), he ultimately became the runner-up of this season once again. He was also the top veteran of the season as well.

## American Ninja Warrior 14

Austin returned for his fifth season in the fourth qualifying episode as one of the favorites to win it all. He performed strong, being one of only eight competitors to got past Final Frontier that episode. He thought about once again attempting the Mega Wall for a moment, but he ultimately chose not and went on to hit his second buzzer on a qualifying course. He placed 2nd overall that episode.

He later competed in the fourth and last semifinals episode. There he once again cleared the course, this time with the fastest time and he once again went to the Power Tower, this time racing against Nate Hansen. On the Power Tower, it looked like Austin was once again going to get the Safety Pass after Nate got hung up on the ropes. However Austin ended up slipping on the cliffhanger edge, giving Nate the easy win and also meaning that he didn't have the Safety Pass with him for his third appearance at the national finals.

On Stage One, things were looking good until he struggled with the Tetherball, where he got low on the rope and had to climb up and dismount from the cylinder. Unfortunately, he fell off the side of the platform and his foot touched the water, marking the first time he failed on Stage One.