2:01
There's nothing more beautiful than beautiful Epcot Center at night here at Walt Disney World. We're on site here at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, leaning into the unconventionable yet incredible. It's the 10th anniversary of ESPN 8, the Oo, and time for Slippery Stairs, the main event, the primary chaos tour from the Advent Health Arena. And we are so excited you're with us, everybody. Drew Felios alongside the creator, the inventor of Slippery Stairs, Paul Higgins. And it just seems like this event gets bigger and better every single year. What can we look forward to in 2026?
Drew, you know, you and I worked together last year and we had a blast. This year, you're going to have twice as much fun. I promise you, the lube is great this year, and I know that we're going to have some new elements to the competition. One is a relay race and one is they're hooked at the hip. So, you and me are going up the stairs together, my friend. Oh my goodness. just gets slippier, just gets more crazy, more chaos year after year. These competitors too, outstanding athletes in their own right, but here are the ground rules and they have been tweaked just a little bit from year to
year. Now, THE COMPETITION IS HERE AS WE ARE UNDERWAY. Here we go. Conrad Walters gets us going. So, this is the tabletop, Drew. As they slide down, they'll hit that first step. And again, it is a race to the top. the lubrication. We mixed it a little bit different this year. We have our slippery slime girls once again making sure that contestants know they're there. So that is Max White right now in the orange very carefully making his way up on that right side. But right behind him is Cameron Aan in the blue. That's right. So we have in red is Chris. In purple it's Ben. I'll stay with the single names tonight. First names, orange is Max, green is Mitchell as they go back down. Pink is Zack. And as you mentioned blue is Cameron. And
right now Cameron has the lead, but he's at that flat part. He comes back down. So now in the red, it's Chris Murray with a little bit of an edge, but sometimes when you're in the lead, that is not the best POSITION TO BE IN, ESPECIALLY with those ankles sticking out. No doubt. Chris Murray was here about 3 and 1/2 hours ago. He was so excited. He's a local out of Florida. But in blue right now is Cameron. As you mentioned, he is a very good athlete. And he looks back and he's like, "Okay, am I going to go to the top?" You can see the bell right in the foreground there. That's
what he has to get to ring the bell. But before he gets there, it's a mess. And he gets the top and it's going to be Cameron, our winner for the first race. Cameron A in his first year as a competitor. Loves to fish right behind him now in the pink. AND ZACK MCNAME GOES HE GOES. ZACK GOES ALL THE WAY DOWN. OH MY GOODNESS. Which allows in I'm like, is that orange or red? orange. So, it is orange. So, that is Max in second place. And you can see, Drew, as they get to the top, it gets a little gnarly up there. Just about to call that second place competitor's name. And then boom, everything changes just like that. And Drew, this is really important here
because you get six points for the win, five points for second, and four for third, right? So, um 654, keeping our math correct, and it builds. So, if you lose this first race, you can still come back and win the relay and get to the final. We're all building towards that final. So carefully making his way up here. It's Ben Clauss and he should get to the finish line. He does. He'll get a chance to ring that bell. How about Ben Clauss as he comes in third. So that's important. And pink. Coming up right now is Zach McNamera. And I was talking to Zach and he said, "I'm ready to go, Paul." And let's get this thing done. And coming up next, right after this
race is going to be our women. And we have some outstanding athletes. And Drew, when I mentioned athletes, this is an athletic sport. I mean, can you imagine falling down a set of stairs where it's all shiny? You're with Cameron. From the most nervous contestant to winning it and flipping down the stairs. How did you flip a switch like that as an athlete? I don't know. I just kind of went out there, did my thing, did my best, tried my hardest, and we won. Well, absolutely. It's paying off. What did you do to train for this sport?
Absolutely nothing. A natural. He's a natural. Congratulations, Cameron. We'll see you in the next round. Thank you. Back to you, Paul. Thank you, Zoe. And I know Drew, you're looking forward to this as we have the ladies, the adult female division. In red, it's Briana. In purple, Alyssa. In orange, Bianca. In green, Cassidy. Pink Lily. And blue, Giana. And an absolutely chaotic start. Absolutely. From the start, I told the ladies, I said, "Look, the first step you make is going to be slippery." And they're they're learning. And Drew, this is what we call the tabletop. So, it's a slope up like a BMX track, right? Where
you go off the jump. So, this right here can get pretty gnarly if you don't get over the top. Sometimes, uh, you know, our slippery stairs guys, they'll help out the girls. Um, they are really struggling right now. I have never seen a start quite like this. Have you seen a start like this? Yes. And uh, you know, it's this is where I'm telling you right now, Drew, if they make it up this, which they will, it's exhausting. So they have to save some energy to get at least halfway up the stairs. Paul, is there a new solution perhaps being spread out on this track here tonight?
Drew, great question. You know what's really interesting is that the lubrication really it's a chemistry. So if it's cool in here, it reacts differently. If it's warm in here, it reacts differently. Right now in red, Bana Cherry, who uh signed up about two months ago, is our leader. And she's all alone. The wild horse out front. But again, she's got to get over this flat part. There's a flat part she's gonna go over. She's tall enough to do it. The belts in the foreground and then up on the top third. It's a mess up there. The, you know, we kept it a mess, but she's going to come away with a win. So, Brianna Cherry gets to ring the bell and everybody else just so late getting out of the gates in green. Cassidy
Jackson with a little bit of daylight. Yeah, I think that Oh, there she goes back down in green. Cassidy Jackson, who I just talked to a little while ago. She's a great athlete. You know, Briana is a great athlete. She told me before this started she plays all sports and she played all sports in high school and that maybe that slow and steady Drew really helped her and she stayed away and she stayed in the middle in orange right now. That's Bianca Mendoza and it looks like she's going to get second place.
There you go, Bianca. Congratulations. I'm here with Briana. Tell me about that amazing win, that peak athleticism you just exemplified for us. That was crazy. And I'm covered in goop. What kind of tactics did you use to just send it up the staircase? I was just like, you need to lock in. I locked in and I just went for it. You definitely locked in. Did you look back at it at least once? I don't think so. THERE YOU HAVE IT, BRIANA. EVERYBODY, FEMALE Heat winner.
Back to you, Paul. Be interesting, Drew, to see how the boys do with this first section of the stairs. And it's a tabletop. And uh we've got some great kids. Nolan is in red, in purple is Colton, Corbin is in orange, Elias in green, Tyler Duke is in pink, and Logan Walters is in blue. And he is out to the start. This kid's a hockey athlete out of Buffalo, New York. And I don't know how he shot up there so fast, but he comes right back down. So, let's see if he can recover. And now you see in the pink starting to make a move, Tyler Duck Sherman. That's right. Tyler, uh, I talked to him earlier today and he was so excited. He would not leave me alone. He goes, "Can I go up there right now?" I said, "No,
it's another hour and a half away. You got you got to wait, man, for live TV." But there goes Logan. He's looking at this section right here getting pelted by her slippery slime girls. Almost loses his balance. The crowd absolutely loves this. And he looks back trying to see if anybody behind him's a threat. Logan Walters. Can he GET TO THE TOP? OH, IT IS TOUGH SLITTING RIGHT THERE. You know, he is, you know, he's got a handle on this. He's actually trying to uh see if somebody's going to come up so he can knock him down, but it's going to be a Logan. He'll get to the top unscathed for the win. So, Logan Walters gets to the top of the
mountain first and let's see who is going to follow behind. It is anybody's race for second right now. Well, Colton Christy just comes down and then you've got Elias. You know, um, Elias is a great athlete as well, and he wants to just take somebody out. There's a future slippery stairs getting a bottle right now, getting them ready for a couple years from now. Once again, the first one at the top wins, you get six points. And, you know, Logan could lose the next race and not even get in the final. So, we make every race count.
See Elias right there on the right in green. And in red right now, some open space for Nolan Wisen to perhaps inch up, but he comes crashing down as well. Yep. I If I'm in orange right now, I am just saying, you know, I got to get to the top. That's Corbin. But Corbin turns and falls. And now in red, we've got Nolan Weiss. And Nolan, they just can't seem to get past this section. And uh I think they're having more fun just sliding down the stairs. My goodness. This has been an adventure. It certainly has. And it will be interesting to see right here again.
They're just trying to get over that one flat section. And it's not like they're not trying, that's for sure. And here we go in pink. Right here, Drew is a new section that we didn't have last year. And then the third section is a little bit loosey goosey. And he will get to the top. So that's Tyler Duck Sherman. Big smile as he waves to the crowd. Rings that bell. No better feeling than that. No doubt. And in green, it looks like Elias will come away in third and that's super important. And then after this, you know, we start to jump into the relay races. So Elias Bishion gets to ring the bell.
Three competitors still on the stairs and as he stretches out where these guys are like 4t tall, you know, four and a half maybe. We got to stretch over that flat section just to get to the top. And that's a little difficult if you're a little person, but right here, I know that uh once you get a handle on it and you come up with a plan, um I can't tell you what that plan is because I don't want to give anything away, but uh once you get it, it locks in. There you go. Chance to ring the bell for Colton Christie. So, four come across to the top and you see the capacity crowd here. It is rocking inside this Advent Health Arena. It's the night cap here at Disney.
Uh it was just I tried to get up there fast, but I was going to try to cause a lot of chaos, but seems like competition wasn't getting up there as easy. I saw you um wiping some of the slime down for your contestants. Tell me about that. Did you come up with that before? Uh, no. I was kind of just solid at the top of the stairs and then just kind of try to make it more slippery for them at the top. Congratulations. We'll see you in the next seat. Logan in red. It's London. She's a cheer athlete out of Top Gun here in Florida. We have Ever in purple. Orange is Bridget. Bridget, pardon me. Kaylee is in green and Sasha is in pink. And in blue it's Collins. Right now in purple, that's Ever Z who is starting to
climb the stairs just like Logan did all by himself. Now we have her doing it. And Ever just 12 years old. She says, "I can do back flips. I'm one of the most athletic athletes in this event." She is. She's a super sweet girl. So much energy. And you know, we talked about it last year. I hear from the contestants sometimes slow and steady is the best way. And uh right now she's being pretty methodical and uh we've seen two great races by the juniors. And look at that smile. So Bridget just took a tumble in orange and now the pink trying to make some headway. Anastasia Moyer that is. And she is starting to get a little bit of confidence now the higher she gets.
Yes, she is. Look at the smile. Are these girls having fun or what? The slippery slime girls are nailing them. You got to get over this section right here. She seems to have a handle on it. So, Anastasia is going to No doubt if she doesn't slip here. This is a tricky section, she'll get second place, and that will definitely help her. Once you get to the top of the mountain, too, you can be a little bit of cheerleader. You see that going on right now. And congrats to Anastasia Moyer with second place. She'll never forget this day. No doubt. And in third in red, finally getting up there. That's London. Now, I had picked London to maybe win this thing, but uh we'll see what happens
here. You see a go Kaye sign in the background. Kaylee is in green and uh let's see if she's going to come away with a at least a fourth. But Drew, she's chasing Collins. So you're the guy who created this. You designed these stairs, built it from scratch. Just what this event has become around the world. Has it amazed you lately? You know, it's just fun. I was asked that yesterday during media day and I said, you know, it's not me. Our crew has done such an amazing job. It come down it comes down to the contestants and they buy into what we're doing. We just got off a tour where we were in South Padre Island. Um, uh, Knoxville, Tennessee and Atlantic City
and, uh, all those locations were just amazing and those shows are going to be on ESPN as well. So, we're excited. We're delivering those shows and the crowds get bigger and better every stop. Oh, we're so thrilled to have you here at Disney ESPN 8 Oo, the 10th anniversary year here in 2026. And this race going to be called here for junior girls getting ready for the relay races. All sorts of nooks and crannies involved. That's right. So, we have the relay races. The batons have been put out. I'm trying to see if they're out there. I'm thinking they are. I hope they are. Um, my goodness, they better be. And blue
already out there. That's the guy that won the first race. And how about it? That's Cameron. He's calling him down. He's calling. Conrad, the referee is calling him down. So, he had an infraction. So, he goes back down. But let's see. He just squeezes his way. I don't know. He's got it. He's not slipping. And Green, though, coming up. There's the batons right there. And he gets pulled down. What a great pull right there. Oh, no. You got not that. You got to get the baton. He's He didn't listen to the rules. He's got to get the baton now. He's got it. But he's got the wrong baton. He's got a RED OH NO. HE'S AS COLORED BLIND as I am. You got the wrong baton. So he's got to go back up and get his car.
What the heck's going to happen now? Oh my goodness. He's got the wrong baton and I think these guys were out at the bar or something. They're ringing the bell. You're not supposed to ring the bell. I had this conversation with them. I told you it was the prime time chaos tour. It certainly is. And how about the balls also put in play from the fans throwing balls at our competitors. That's right. You know, we have to have a little bit of dodgeball in this thing, right? So, we got that, but in purple, actually, Green's in the lead right now.
It gets a little confusing because you wonder who's in the lead. So, Mitchell has in green his baton. He's got a I think they kind of screwed this thing up. I tell you, Mitchell is not in the lead because it's supposed to be a girl in the lead who he handed it off to. But let's see how this thing plays out. I know we're a ref will figure it out. Mitchell will grab his baton and he should go back down and hand it to person in green. There you go. There. And he can take out whoever he does and he just took out in red Chris. Well, if you're making your way up those stairs and somebody is coming crashing down right at you, there is nothing you can do. That should be your leader there in
purple. She's got to pick up her baton and uh that will be your first place winner right there unless something changes again. The official scorekeeper is on the ground so you and I could be as confused as anything. Mhm. So just roll with me. You cool with that? I'm I am absolutely good. Let's do this all night. Nicole Boon that is in purple. Okay. So Nicole is our current leader. She has to Drew She has to hold on to that baton. that she loses it. If somebody knocks it out of her hand, then that orange just pushed over. Bianca just pushed over the lady next to her.
And this is going to be your winner in purple. The purple team of Ben and Alyssa. If she gets to the top without falling, she gets the win. And there it is. There's your winner. How about that? Now, that's how it's supposed to work. crowd just absolutely loving this in orange. That's your second place finish. And that's Max and Bianca. You're going to go first and do the like two legs of the race. So, here we go. Remember Logan Walters won this thing and he got out of the gate fast and right now in blue he was trying to get to the top. Look at the girls behind them. Drew telling him what to do. And there goes Logan. He got a running
start. goes by the ESPN volleyball. He'll slide down. Oh no. Once again, he's a hockey player out of Buffalo, New York. He loves the Sabres and loves the Bills and football. And what he could do right here, Drew, he can reach over and pull down the young boy next to him, but he gets whacked in the face with a ball. See the young ladies? Is this the cutest thing you've ever seen when you got the girls cheering on the boys? Oh, because then they got to compete against each other. You know who has to be the most competitive one is ever Z. She is just cheering on her partner whenever one moments ago.
Colton Christie right now is your leader. He is just feet away from that bell in the finish line. Colton to the top. He's got to get the baton. He doesn't have to ring the bell. Now he's got to go give that baton to his partner. Oh my goodness. Taking out everybody. Got to grab the baton. You got the baton flying. Knee pads are flying off. Our Triple A knee pads are coming undone. Here we go. The Red's coming down. And that's could be our second place position right here. But take a look at the girls. Look at this. Look what she did. She put the baton in her uniform.
Now that is smart. I didn't tell them about that, but that is something you can do. That's Ever who put the baton inside her uniform as she climbs the stairs. And look at her just very confidently and patiently work her way up. Yes, just in her enthusiasm alone is carrying her now. Logan Walters is going to have to go back down. Remember, he won the first race all by himself. Oh, he tried to push Ever down, but she's going to come away. And that's your first place finisher right there. That was so cool. Ever Zay Davis is becoming an absolute rock star tonight. So in purple they come away. That's Colton and Ever. And then right here in pink there's going to be Anastasia the grand finale. We're getting ready
for our tide at the hip races. Never seen anything like this but here we are the adult version. So we have the belts on them. They've got about 6 in or so in between each other and they've got to methodically figure this out. It is a hot mess, but uh you know once they get in unison, it works out pretty cool. And uh again, you can pull each other down. I encourage them. I said, "Look, if you got a chance to grab an ankle right there that you see the orange team and that is Max and Bianca," I said, "Pull him down. Go for it." And that's exactly what they're doing. And how about that in orange, Drew? We've got Max and Bianca and she he's it's it's total teamwork as you can see. He's helping her out. And uh again
at the bottom of the tub there at the base of the stairs, they are really working it now. They're throwing balls at each other. And our slippery slime girls are definitely busy at the top spreading out lubrication at the stairs. And right now as they look back, Max has a handle on it. Bianca, they are going to come away with the win. That is huge. Hooked at the hip. Wow. I love the approach. I love how they were ahead and were still throwing balls at the competitors behind them. They took the aggressive approach and it won out.
Yeah, no doubt. They were very confident that they could come away with the win. Again, there is a certain strategy. It's almost like Drew, you have to be on the same step. You can see right here in purple, they're on opposite steps. Oh, that's a good pull. Oh my goodness. Cameron and Gianna. Cameron with a huge pull. He's trying to get Giana on his right side to kind of come up with him at the same time. It's almost like your hands have to be in unison. And right about now, you are exhausted. Look at the team in blue. Cameron and Gianna. They can see the finish line. So close yet so far. And again, right here at the top third is the Oh, look at the bucket. The bucket's coming out. So why not just dump the bucket? But
there is going to be your second place finisher. And that's Cameron and Giana. And it's going to be kind of cool just to see if our last two will make it up. Listen to the crowd. Getting a little boost here from the crowd inside the cozy confines of the Advent Health Arena. Here comes Purple finishing third. Hey, this is as loud as it gets in here for a cheer cop. This is so cool. And I give them a lot of credit hanging in there and finishing it. And race of the night. You see some of the pop darts being sported by some of our young fans and slippery stairs there. But you got to reach the top of the stairs together. And this could be quite a challenge for
these three teams. Purple, pink, and blue. HERE WE GO. THAT'S RIGHT. PURPLE. We've got Colton and Ever. In pink, it's Tyler and Anastasia. And in blue, it's Logan who won the first race. His partner is Collins. They go down quickly at the base. And uh Logan takes a leg out again. He plays hockey. He's negotiating. But how about it in pink? That's Tyler and Anastasia. We saw Anastasia earlier. She had the biggest smile I've seen today. Again, working in unison. So right now, Team Pink with the edge. Anastasia and Tyler. They've got the chemistry and you see the battle for second place. Those second and third place teams not letting each other inch up. So that is benefiting the first place team right now.
No doubt. And again, uh these belts um when you're hooked at the hip, it's it's about a foot right there. We made sure that uh we don't clip anyone on the way down if they come down together and wipe out somebody. But that's certainly a lot of fun. These guys, Anastasia, if she goes down with her partner Tyler, they could easily take out uh the whole class. And there we go. There is your first place winner. So Tyler and Anastasia, what a performance. And the battle for second continues. Blue comes tumbling down. Logan Walters has had himself a night. He was trying to make the pull, but then his partner got sideways and they go down. And right now Colton and Ever and remember she was the one really
strategizing with her partner as they go all the way to the top. Sign girls doing their job. And there is your second place finisher, Ever. That tongue has been wagging tonight. She loves the camera. Yeah. So, so what a night it has been. The athletes of Slippery Stairs showing us how it is done here at Disney. Hope you enjoyed it. Slippery Stairs continues to get bigger and better every single year. For Paul Higgins and our phenomenal crew here at the ESPN Wide World of Sports, I'm Drew Felios. Have a great night everybody.
