Scrambling through a ninja warrior obstacle course is the dream for 15-year-old Abbey Cutts.
"It's like an adrenaline rush," she told ABC Radio Brisbane's Katherine Feeney.
"It's flying through the air, running, swinging on things – it's just so much fun."
The young ninja warrior from Brisbane has won the right to represent Australia in two international ninja championships in the United States next month.
But only if she can get there.
"I did two national championships for Australia last year [but] my one that got me to represent Australia when I go to Florida is the Australian Ninja Games," Abbey said.
The Brisbane teenager scrambled through a ninja course of beams, hanging wheels and rope swings to secure second place in the under-15s bracket at the national championships in January.
She ran a qualifying time of two minutes and seven seconds, beating out finalist Skye Warkotz in a fraction of a second.
Now the world competition is in Abbey's sights, but to get there she needs to raise more than $20,000 to cover the cost of food, accommodation and flights.
Becoming a ninja
Abbey had always enjoyed swinging on playground monkey bars, but it was a friend's birthday party that set her on the ninja path more than four years ago.
"I really liked watching the TV show Australian Ninja Warrior," she said.
"Then I went to a friend's birthday party at a ninja gym called Urban Extreme and I just fell in love with it."
Mum Melissa Cutts said her daughter was all-in from the start.
"She took to it straight away and had an absolute ball, and it was like it was meant for her to be honest," Ms Cutts said.
Now Abbey trains six to seven days a week at ninja warrior gyms across Brisbane's northside, as well as on a custom-built obstacle course in her backyard.
Ms Cutts said gym mats were a must.
"The ninja frame went in during COVID. It was a great saver for Abbey doing schooling from home and so forth.
"It's been the best investment we've put in the backyard and she spends a lot of time out of there.
"She absolutely loves it and we will support her all the way."'
Pushing the sport to the next level
Obstacle Australia president Emma Teede said more young people were taking up obstacle sports such as ninja, including at elite levels.
"What we're seeing is the sport doubling in size every year almost," she said.
"We're seeing kids, we're seeing them push what the human mind is capable of.
"We've gone from simple cargo nets that they climb up and straight monkey bars to what we call floating monkey bars or flying bars, where they take bars with them and jump distances to place them in accurate slots."
Obstacle sports are on track to be included as part of a new-look modern pentathlon event at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
The peak international pentathlon body UIPM will propose a modern pentathlon with obstacle instead of horse riding to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) this year, which will then decide whether to include the revamped sport in the Los Angeles Games.
The IOC previously dropped the modern pentathlon along with weightlifting and boxing from the sport roster for the Los Angles Games after changing eligibility criteria in 2021.
Ms Teede said younger generations were pushing the sport to the next level at such a rapid pace that she was having to redo basic ninja courses just to keep up with their technique.
"It's great to watch. It's entertaining," she said.
"Officials are coming through, coaches are coming up, countries are jumping on board and federations are loving it around the world."
'Anyone can be a ninja'
Abbey has so far raised more than $8,000 through Easter raffles and a fundraising project supported by the Australian Sport Federation.
She said she wanted to make a career out of the sport she loved.
"I'm coaching at the moment. I really want to make a career out of that and do personal training for it, maybe even work at one of the ninja gyms," she said.
Abbey said anyone could become a ninja warrior.
"You can really become a ninja at any age," she said.
"Even my old coach Pa Rambo, he was in his 60s and [is] still really amazing."
