campgladiator

  By  Andy Langer              Fitness entrepreneur Ally Davidson’s CV features one item that’s proven a real conversation starter: Grand Champion, NBC’s  American Gladiators . A decade ago, without telling her fiancé, she spent the morning of her wedding day trying out for the show. A former two-sport athlete at Texas State University, she did 14 pull-ups and ran a 40-yard dash at the auditions, then raced to the church without even showering before the ceremony. She eventually won the show’s second season and used the $100,000 prize to launch Camp Gladiator, which hosts group workout boot-camp-style classes outdoors in unconventional spaces. With $42.2 million in revenue in 2017, 950 trainers, 75 full-time employees, and classes in six states, she’s turned reality television stardom into a business that has appeared on  Inc. ’s list of the fastest-growing companies in the nation and landed her on Glassdoor’s list of best CEOs. “Reality show fame can be fleeting, and my husband and I