Jesse Labreck, perhaps better known by the pretty sweet moniker “Flex” Labreck, made her debut on American Ninja Warrior in 2016 and has since gone on to be one of the most dominant female competitors on the show, advancing to the national finals every time she’s competed, and having been the last woman standing in two different seasons as of 2019. In her debut season, she was one of only four women to advance to the city finals round that year, earning the group the appropriate nickname the Fantastic Four. Notably, however, Labreck was the only one of the four to advance to the national finals, becoming the first female rookie to do so. In the 2019 season, Labreck performed better than her fiance, fellow ANW competitor Chris DiGangi, finishing sixth on the qualifying course and tying Meagan Martin for the record for most consecutive qualifying buzzers.

As Labreck told ESPN in 2016, during her early appearances on the show, she was working as a live-in caregiver for a 20-year-old woman with cerebral palsy named Emeline Sterpe. Sterpe can often be seen cheering on Labreck from the sidelines during her ANW runs. However, since becoming engaged to fellow Ninja competitor Chris DiGangi in 2019, the two have opened and run the Ultimate Ninja Gym in Naperville, Illinois, as the Chicago Tribune reports. Labreck’s official title is “General Manager of Course Operations,” meaning she oversees safety, curriculum, course development, and more.

Debuting in 2013’s season five, Jessie Graff is one of American Ninja Warrior‘s biggest stars, being the first woman to attempt a city finals course, the second woman to qualify for the national finals, the first woman to clear stage one of the final course, the first woman to clear stage two of the final course, and the highest ranking ever of any woman in a city final, among many other achievements. She is also the first woman ever to clear the second stage and attempt the third stage on the original Japanese Sasuke course.

Despite all of these accomplishments, American Ninja Warrior is probably not where most people in the world have seen Jessie Graff, even if they don’t actually know they were seeing her. Graff’s day job is as a stuntwoman, and as she explains on her homepage, she has worked on a number of incredibly well-known projects, including Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Transformers, The Dark Knight, and Agents of SHIELD, among others. Her many projects in the superhero genre have been reflected in her tendency to wear superhero-themed costumes while running the ANW course. Her work on Wonder Woman 1984 caused her to have to miss running the national finals course in season 10, but she returned for season 11, again qualifying for the national finals. Additionally, Graff has black belts in Taekwondo and Kung Fu, as well as degrees in theater, and — yes, you guessed it — aerospace engineering.

Despite not wearing a flashy costume or having a silly nickname like “The Highlighter Ninja” or whatever, Allyssa Beird has become a breakout star on American Ninja Warrior thanks to her stellar and reliable performance. In her debut season she managed to advance to the city finals, earning her spot as one of the “Fantastic Four” women to do so. In 2017, she became the second woman ever to hit a buzzer on stage one after Jessie Graff, as well as being the first woman (along with Flex Labreck) to complete a city qualifying course, and the first woman to be the first overall finisher of any course. As of 2019, she has been to the national finals every time she has run the course.

While such accomplishments might be expected from other competitors who are pro rock climbers or freerunners or NCAA pole vaulters or what have you, you might be surprised to hear of them coming from an otherwise unassuming fifth grade teacher. As she told ESPN in 2017, every day Beird commutes an hour to her job as a teacher in Middleborough, Massachusetts, stays after school to do administrative work, then hits the ninja gym, balancing five hours of training with five hours of sleep. And if that’s not enough to keep her busy, according to her homepage, she also does web development work for her dad’s company.

For its first nine seasons, the minimum age for competitors on American Ninja Warrior was 21, but in season 10 it was dropped to 19, which allowed then-19-year-old Mathis “Kid” Owhadi to make a run for Mount Midoriyama. However, by then, Owhadi had already competed on a college version of the show and as a member of Daniel Gil’s crew on a team competition version of the course. Due to this experience, Owhadi has been able to dominate the course since 2018, despite that technically being his rookie season. He finished his rookie season by qualifying for the national finals in fifth place and becoming the second-youngest person ever to clear stage one of the final course before failing on stage two. In season 11, Owhadi defeated his mentor Daniel Gil on the Power Tower and made his way to stage three of the final course before falling from the Ultimate Cliffhanger.

As he is one of ANW‘s youngest competitors, it won’t surprise most people to learn Owhadi is still in college as of 2019. As reported by American Ninja Warrior Nation, he studies at the University of Houston’s Bauer College of Business, where he studies, well, business. When he graduates, will he start some kind of ninja-related business? Will he be able to advise his ninja friends on how best to monetize doing flips in public? Only time will tell.

Barclay Stockett made her debut on the ANW stage not on the main show, but on Team Ninja Warrior as a member of Daniel Gil’s Team Iron Grip together with Nate Burkhalter. Despite losing to Michelle Warnky in her first race of that season, Stockett managed to find success in a later round, where she helped her team advance to the finals. Since then, Stockett — known as “the Sparkly Ninja” both for her personality and the fact her first name kind of sounds like “sparkly” — has made a strong showing on the main ANW series, appearing in the national finals three times as of 2019. At five foot nothing, she also notably holds the record for shortest person to successfully complete both the Jumping Spider and the Warped Wall obstacles, both of which are easier for longer-limbed people.

As reported by the Houston Chronicle, Stockett, a longtime gymnast and gymnastics coach in the Houston area, was actually living and working as a volunteer in South Africa in 2014 and had never heard of American Ninja Warrior until everyone started sending her video of Kacy Catanzaro’s historic run that year. Thankfully she returned home to Houston and its apparently thriving ninja scene, where she met Daniel Gil, who would invite her to his ninja team. She currently works as a pro athlete and coach for Alpha Warrior, an obstacle race training company.