Ninja Warrior Hopeful

Описание: A North Ogden man is training for one of the top fitness challenges in the country, and he's doing it after once shattering both his legs below the knee when he was hit by a drunk driver.

Sidney Reeves, 45, is hoping to compete in the American Ninja Warrior challenge. It is a TV show where contestants compete in a grueling obstacle course where they try to make it to the finish line.

Reeves is very muscular and fit, but if you look at his legs below his knees and above his ankles you begin to wonder how he can even walk.

"This is the back of my left calf it's now in the front of my leg," said Reeves to 2News as he points to his leg. "Over here you can see where the bones came out of the skin the night of the accident. "

It was Sept. 22, 1987 when an 18-year-old Reeves and his girlfriend were running along the road in North Ogden when suddenly they were hit by a drunk driver. Reeves girlfriend was thrown into the windshield of the car and was killed in the accident. The only thing Reeves can remember is waking up alongside of the road in a lot of pain.

"My bones are sticking out I'm losing blood. I can feel cool air in my legs," said Reeves. "But I was alive. I was alive! That's a starting point."

Reeves would spend years and years in and out of the hospital - undergoing as many as 25 surgeries. He would wear several metal braces for years and at one point doctors even had his legs sewn together.

Doctors told him he would probably never walk again, but he beat the odds and walked out of the hospital without crutches 11 years after the accident.

"I walked out of that hospital and laid on the grass and I looked at the sky. I was totally overwhelmed with emotion. I did it! I did it," said an emotional Reeves.

Reeves story was so incredible it he ended up on the Opera Show. He would later go on to medical school at the University of Utah, but he was a gym rat at heart. 14 years ago he opened up his very own gym.

"This is Sidney's fitness training," said Reeves with a big smile across his face. "I'm using what I went through to now help others."

Sally Pincombe, 64, has Parkinson's Disease has been coming to Reeves for about three years.

"Yea how can you not be helped after seeing someone totally come from what he did. He should have had his legs amputated," said Pincombe.

Reeves will be working to submit his video for the show in January and if he is picked he will go to Denver in the spring to compete.

"I feel like I survived for a reason," said Reeves. "I think people need faith and my story is obviously miraculous…so if I perform well on that show and they see my legs they are going to know you can do it I don't care who you are."