Utah teen dominates on ‘American Ninja Warrior’ — and wins $10,000
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The “American Ninja Warrior” announcers didn’t hold back their enthusiasm when it was Kai Beckstrand’s turn to navigate the challenging obstacle course in the show’s Season 15 premiere Monday night.
The teenager from St. George, Utah, is fast.
When he made his “ANW” debut in Season 13, he beat out professional athletes and seasoned veterans of the show to secure the fastest time of all the competitors in the first round (he did it in 1:38.83).
Now 17, Beckstrand has returned — and he’s even faster.
And according to the “American Ninja Warrior” announcers, the teenager is a favorite to win the whole show, which is a telling statement: Only two contestants in the show’s history — including Salt Lake City’s Isaac Caldiero — have been declared an “American Ninja Warrior” champion and claimed the show’s $1 million prize.
But on Monday night, Beckstrand made a strong case that he could become the third.
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“If you blinked, you missed it,” one of the “American Ninja Warrior” announcers said following Beckstrand’s run during the Season 15 premiere.
The 17-year-old appeared to cruise through the six obstacles that put balance and upper body strength to the test with extreme ease — a challenging course that only 11 competitors completed during Monday night’s two-hour premiere, per NBC.com.
On top of that, Beckstrand finished the course in a little over 54 seconds — more than 20 seconds ahead of the second-fastest time of the night.
In a major change to the show this season, the height of the Mega Wall has been increased to a record breaking 18.5 feet. Competitors who complete the first round course in under 1 minute and 20 seconds get a shot at running up this wall for $10,000.
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Beckstrand didn’t even seem fazed by the height change. He quickly ran up the wall, hit the buzzer and became the first ninja of the night to claim the $10,000 prize — only one other competitor accomplished this Monday night.
The teenager’s father, Brian Beckstrand, also appeared during the season premiere and made it to the fifth obstacle before falling. But his time secured him a spot in the semifinals along with his son (the top four women and top 12 men from each episode earn a spot in the semifinals).
Both Kai and Brian Beckstrand — who made history in Season 13 when they became the first father-son duo to advance to the semifinals — will again return to compete in the semifinals later this season.
Who is Kai Beckstrand from ‘American Ninja Warrior’?
Kai Beckstrand has been training for “American Ninja Warrior” since he was 7, when his brother requested an “American Ninja Warrior”-themed birthday party and his dad started building obstacles in the backyard for the occasion, the Deseret News previously reported.
At its peak, the Beckstrands’ backyard had anywhere between 40 and 50 obstacles. Most of them were obstacles you’d see on “American Ninja Warrior,” and Brian Beckstrand worked hard to make the obstacles to scale.
That attention to detail seems to have paid off — although the obstacle-ridden backyard has since given way to two gyms in the St. George area that the Beckstrands own and operate.
Brian Beckstrand and his wife, Holly Beckstrand, have competed on multiple seasons of “ANW.” Two of their children, Luke and Baylee, have competed on “American Ninja Warrior Jr.”
And then there’s Kai, who made it all the way to the “ANW” National Finals in Season 13 before being eliminated on Stage 2, the Deseret News reported.
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Now, the 17-year-old is determined to go all the way.
And as Brian Beckstrand previously told the Deseret News, that will involve as much mental preparation as it does physical — some of the runs people see on TV are filmed at 4 or 5 a.m., he said.
“It’s TV — they may be ready to film and then all of a sudden they’re not. So you think you’re going to run in about 15 minutes and then it ends up being about an hour from now. So there’s that mental preparation of waiting,” said Brian Beckstrand, who is a firefighter for the St. George Fire Department. “That seems to be more of a challenge than the course itself sometimes.
“And then when it’s your turn … being in front of the camera is different than training in your gym or training in your backyard, because now people are watching and you have this one shot at it,” he continued. “There’s no redos.”
For his part, Kai Beckstrand, who is training to be a firefighter like his dad, said he does get “really nervous” when he’s about to run a course. But once he’s passed the first obstacle, he gets in the zone and is usually able to block out any distractions from the camera, sidelines or crowd.
“I get a little nervous just because I know that it’s going to be on TV and everybody else can watch, but the adrenaline kind of kicks in,” the teenager previously told the Deseret News. “I just kind of try to push through it.”
