Mikail Jenkins

FROM NINJA WARRIOR TO THE GRID: MIKAIL JENKINS JOINS THE CAROLINA FLIGHT

Before Mikail Jenkins ever stepped onto a competition floor, she was a new mom trying to figure out how to feel like herself again. After her second child, the usual playbook of crash diets and hours of cardio wasn’t doing much. Then a college fitness class changed everything. Not because it was easy, but because it was hard, and she liked it. That class pushed her toward exercise science with a focus in sports nutrition, and eventually into the CrossFit box that would become her proving ground.

Jenkins earned her ACSM certification and CrossFit Level 2 credential while training out of CrossFit Hyperion in Utah. She wasn’t content to just coach, though. She competed at Wodapalooza in 2023, one of the premier CrossFit events in the country, and registered for the 2024 CrossFit Games Open. She also tested herself on the American Ninja Warrior course during Season 11, taking on the Seattle/Tacoma Qualifiers and the St. Louis rounds. Most athletes stay in their lane. Jenkins keeps finding new ones.

Her profile grew beyond the gym floor, too. In 2021, she appeared on three episodes of Adrenaline, Athlete Profile, a documentary series spotlighting elite athletes. Her episodes covered the psychology of competing as an underdog and balancing elite training with motherhood, subjects she knows firsthand. She became a WOD Relief sponsored athlete and built an online coaching business helping other women navigate the same transformation she went through.

Now Jenkins brings all of that to the Carolina Flight as a bodyweight specialist. Grid League rewards the kind of athlete who can move their own body weight fast and efficiently across obstacles, exactly the skill set she built on the Ninja Warrior course and in the CrossFit box. The Flight are counting on that versatility when it matters most on the Grid.