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  • Fear, to me, means absolutely nothing anymore.

  • Fear played such a big piece of my life, and it controlled me to not do what was best for me.

  • So, fear to me now is nothing but an imagination.

  • My name is Flip Rodriguez.

  • I'm a Hollywood stuntman, and on "American Ninja Warrior."

  • In the ages of 9 to 15, I was sexually abused by my father.

  • Like, how do I live my life after that?

  • Like, I can't trust anybody.

  • I got into parkour and freerunning when I was at the age of 19.

  • Parkour and freerunning are two different definitions that are very similar.

  • Parkour is just straightforward: vaulting, jumping over walls, over any obstacle in your way.

  • Freerunning is your own style, your own flipping, flow of it;

  • make it nice and pretty as possible, and you take your time.

  • When I first got started, I had never been upside down.

  • So my body's like, wait, whoa, we don't do that.

  • And then the fear aspect kicks in.

  • So, it's like, let's stop and think about this.

  • Is this really worth getting hurt?

  • Fear is what stopped me from trying to stop my sexual abuse.

  • Parkour and freerunning has been a stepping stone for me to heal and be okay with my sexual abuse.

  • Because fear is a big part of parkour and freerunning.

  • So, every day I trained, I was always encountering a new fear.

  • I started in "American Ninja Warrior" Season 3.

  • [Announcer] And look at him go!

  • Using momentum from each jump to get to the next one!

  • And then on Season 7, I actually explained my story.

  • I was sexually abused.

  • After my interview came out, I've had kids write to me.

  • One of the parents reached out to me.

  • Turns out that the daughter and the son were being sexually abused by a family friend.

  • The child just started breaking down crying.

  • She was like, " What Flip is talking about is also happening to me. "

  • And they brought up charges.

  • The gentleman got convicted of that, and that right there blew my mind away.

  • Because not only did I heal myself, but I also saved somebody from further abuse.

  • And that was incredible.

  • I like to give back to the community with using my story.

  • I coach parkour and freerunning.

  • I'm not teaching them just about parkour and freerunning.

  • I try to teach them tools of life.

  • You guys just saw, he kind of fell a little bit.

  • What do you got to say?

  • OK, I don't give up, and I'm gonna try this right now again because Flippy taught us to never give up.

  • Every single person can relate to fear.

  • Yeah!

  • So if I can teach these kids, from a young age, to separate fear from danger, that is a life tool.

  • Yeah, Sasha, nice!

  • My negative piece of my life. I can now turn it around and put a spotlight on it in the sense of this is who I am.

  • This is what happened to me, and look at me, I'm still shining.

Fear, to me, means absolutely nothing anymore.

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