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Kicking it with Nike: valley Taekwondo champ appears in ad

Published  July 13, 2015 9:42pm MST
U.S.
FOX 10 Phoenix

A Valley woman is taking her Taekwondo talents to the small screen, after a video of her went viral on social media.

That video grabbed the attention of Nike, the company featuring her in their latest ad campaign.

Olivia never dreamed that a video of her kicking a water bottle would go viral. She was hoping for a few hundred likes on Instagram. Instead, her social media following skyrocketed and got the attention of one of the biggest brands in the world.

Olivia Garcia is a Taekwondo champion, training with experts like Master Johnny Nguyen since the age of 6

"She was a ball of fire, she would go to competitions and make the boys cry," said Jonny Nguyen.

Now the Tempe native is a viral video sensation after kicking an empty waterbottle off a standing bag at her gym.

"So I was figuring I was gonna get maybe 300 likes on it at the most, and now I'm almost up to 70 thousand so ha," said Olivia Marie Garcia.

Olivia's clip has even been featured on the Ellen Degeneres show. Then came an e-mail from a clothing company, offering Olivia a spot in a commercial. But she would have to agree to participate before they would divulge the brand.

"I told them I'll do it, and they said congratulations it's for Nike, so as soon as that happened I just busted out in tears," said Garcia.

A flight and 40 takes later, Olivia now appears in Nike's "So Fast" commercial, recreating her viral kick. With stars like Kobe Bryant and Serena Williams also in the ad, Olivia's career continues to soar with e-mails, fans, and sponsorship offers.

"It's just been amazing, it's just been such a blessing, I don't even know how to describe it, was just out of nowhere that everything happened," said Garcia.

Olivia says Nike had her try to kick all sorts of objects off that bag; a taekwondo paddle, a Nike brand water bottle, protective headgear. But in the end, the 99 cent every day water bottle did the trick. Taekwondo isn't Olivia's only talent; she also sings and acts, and is headed to shoot a movie in Brazil.