ORLANDO, Fla. — Bray Weinacker makes running, jumping and hanging on an obstacle course look easy.

“It’s a really fun sport. It’s not one you have to go out of your way and go, ‘Ugh, I don’t want to train today’,” Weinacker says. 

The 12-year-old spends a lot of time training and following his passion of becoming an American Ninja Warrior. 

“The competitions are great,” Weinacker says. “All the people that compete are very nice. Everyone’s kind of on the same page because they compete in the same sport.”

Weinacker has been on the move ever since his mother, Sonja, can remember. She says climbing came naturally, even when he was just 3 years old. 

“Bray had shimmied up a light pole, an overhanging light pole, he’d shimmied up and is hanging by one arm, looking in Starbucks going (wave,)” says Sonja Scheffler Weinacker. 

At the gym and at home, you can catch Bray and his sister ZoZo bouncing around and trying to outdo one another. And ZoZo sees her older brother as a role model.

“If I want to be a better ninja and I want to be on the podium, I have to step up my game. So, what I was thinking was since Bray could do it, I could do it, too,” ZoZo Weinacker says.

Bray and his family are extremely close. But an accident when he was 5 years old brought them all together even more. A bungee cord snapped and hit Bray directly in the eye. 

“His eye was just kind of black, and he said, ‘Mommy, I can’t see, Mommy I can’t see, I’m blind’ is what he said. And I said, ‘Bray, we’ll never say that. You’re going to be OK, Buddy,” Scheffler Weinacker says.

“It (the cord) severed the top of his iris, so that folded down over his field of view and because of the direct impact, the eyeball swole up so much they were actually concerned about whether or not he was going to lose the eye,” says Bray’s father, Nick Weinacker.

Bray had damage to his optic nerve, retina and cornea, and he went through several surgeries to reattach his iris. He was able to keep his eye, but has permanent vision loss that ended up affected him doing everyday things. 

“His body was still trying to operate like it did when he could use both eyes,” Scheffler Weinacker says. “So he couldn’t run, he couldn’t catch a ball.”

It took three years to reset his nerves and train his brain to adjust to this new way of seeing. But to Bray, he just wanted to go back to being himself. 

“It wasn’t like me trying to defeat a milestone or get good at something,” Bray says. ”I just want to actually do stuff again. I want to be a regular kid.”

One of the things that helped him regain his confidence as an athlete is wakeboarding.

“Hand-eye coordination, depth perception and just better balance and confidence,” Bray says.

His parents were both professional wakeboarders, with Sonja in the sport's hall of fame and Nick a leading finisher at the 2008 World Wakeboard Championships. They introduced the sport to Bray at a young age. 

“They were both some of the best in the world at what they did,” Bray says. “And with that, it definitely helps you, just knowing you have some awesomeness in your blood.”

Bray loves to be out on the water, early in the morning, practicing tricks and trying new ones. Sonja and Nick say they’re supportive of whatever their children want to pursue, but getting to share Bray’s passion is special. 

“My stoke meter’s, like, at 11 to be doing it with him because it’s like you get to relive it again, but without the fear,” Nick Weinacker says. “And you already know what’s on the other side and how cool it’s going to be for them, and then we just get to do it together.”

The seventh-grader doesn’t let his sight limitations slow him down one bit. But he says there are certain things, like precision bar obstacles, that can be tricky. 

“It’s much easier when you can see both sides out of your periphery, as opposed to having to guess where one side is,” Bray says. “But apparently, over time I’ve gotten pretty good at it.”

Bray is so good at all of the obstacles that he qualified to be on the TV show “American Ninja Warrior Junior.” And his parents are beaming with pride, especially after everything he’s overcome. 

“You see him out on the ninja course, and he does it,” Scheffler Weinacker says. “He does what they said he’d never do, so yeah, he’s my little miracle.”

It was important to Bray to share the story about his eye, so other children could be inspired. 

“There are some limitations that are real limitations, but there’s nothing you can’t work through,” Bray says. “Everything is workable.”

Bray says someday he’d love to start his own gym with special programs for children with special needs. And he’s not the only one who qualified for the show. Obstacle Ninja Academy in Orlando sent six athletes to compete in American Ninja Warrior Junior.