{"id":83270,"date":"2019-12-05T15:21:20","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T21:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=83270"},"modified":"2019-12-11T01:26:38","modified_gmt":"2019-12-11T07:26:38","slug":"ninja-warrior-joins-obstacle-course-racing-to-set-sights-on-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/ninja-warrior-joins-obstacle-course-racing-to-set-sights-on-olympics\/","title":{"rendered":"Ninja Warrior joins obstacle course racing to set sights on Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Junie Burns<\/strong>
\nMedill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

Acclaimed athletes such as gymnast Simone Biles and swimmer Katie Ledecky prepare for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. But behind the scenes, Ian Adamson and Bob Clark are hard at work to introduce a new sport to the Olympics: obstacle course racing joined by Ninja Warrior athletics.<\/p>\n

Every season of Olympic Games provides an opportunity for new sports to be showcased as demonstration sports, and each of those sports hopes to be selected as an official Olympic event. The 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo will welcome back baseball and softball as Olympic sports while also debuting Rock Climbing.<\/p>\n

Ninja Warrior became a phenomenon as a youth recreational sport following the success of the NBC hit series American Ninja Warrior, launched in 2006. The televised Ninja Warrior competition has spread to more than 18 countries, and local gyms are popping up in the Chicago area and all over the world, providing ample opportunities for local competitions.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Clark, the CEO of Ultimate Ninja Athlete Association (UNAA) was a fan of American Ninja Warrior, and he was among the first ninja athletes who built his own obstacles in his yard to practice. Now he travels the world to establish international UNAA leagues.<\/p>\n

For Clark, his hobby quickly transformed into a passion-fueled business to keep the sport growing. He initially created UNAA in the hopes of helping the top athletes qualify for the NBC competition series, but in the four years since the inception of UNAA, the competition has quickly found success overseas.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy original goal was to have a gym in every part of the country within a couple hundred miles,\u201d Clark said. \u201cI wanted to go nationwide from day one, and now worldwide, that\u2019s just exploded.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was when Clark decided to track down more information on the process of turning a sport into an Olympic event.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always wanted to make this a true sport and one day be in the Olympics,\u201d Clark said. \u201cTo me, it seems like the perfect Olympic sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ultimate
Ninja Warrior training gyms like Ultimate Ninjas Chicago are popping up all over the world. Athletes train to perfect grip, balance and agility obstacle course. (Junie Burns\/Medill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Midwest is a powerhouse in terms of producing some of the strongest competitors. Top American Ninja Warrior athletes like Ethan Swanson, Michael Torres, Michelle Warnky and Jesse Labreck are based out of the Midwest, and many of the sport\u2019s young rising stars who will be future Olympic hopefuls are coached by these athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cSix years ago, there was maybe one [local ninja] competition a summer and only one gym and one league,\u201d said Patrick Losch, co-founder of Chicago-based ninja competition league Athlete Warrior Games. \u201cNow the kids pretty much dominate Ninja Warrior.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ninja Warrior training gyms like Ultimate Ninjas Chicago are popping up all over the world.<\/p>\n

Torres, a coach at the gym and American Ninja Warrior season 11 finalist, expressed similar excitement about the growth of the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids are doing things that we can\u2019t do,\u201d Torres said. \u201cThe ninja world is blowing up. We\u2019ve got masters competitions, pro competitions, amateur competitions. Everybody can compete in Ninja.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark reached out to the Global Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF) to learn more about this process. GAISF is the umbrella organization for all international sports federations including the Olympics.<\/p>\n

After filling out the 45-page application, Clark was advised to combine forces with Adamson of World Obstacle Course Racing, who had been working on the Olympic process since 2014 and was making headway towards turning World OCR into an officially recognized sport. By combining the two increasingly popular and similar sports, Clark and Adamson hoped to build a recognizable sports federation.<\/p>\n

Obstacle course racing is most famously associated with the internationally acclaimed Spartan Race and Ninja Warrior competitions. There will be over 60 Spartan races in the United States alone in 2020, where over one million professional and amateur competitors a year compete in a variety of races that are infused with obstacles.<\/p>\n

Adamson is the president of World OCR, the international federation for Obstacle sports. As the popularity for obstacle course racing continues to rise, Adamson is hopeful that his hard work will come to light and the federation can continue its journey towards Olympic representation.<\/p>\n

Adamson says that the Ninja OCR provides a familiarity that is cherished among Ninja Warrior fans while also challenging the top Ninja Warrior athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the same look, same feel, same athletes coming in,\u201d Adamson said. \u201cBut [the Ninja Warrior competitors] get a little surprised because they\u2019re not about speed – they\u2019re more about technical ability and the speed athletes is somewhat different. It\u2019s really cool because you\u2019re not quite sure who\u2019s going to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

In order to qualify for Olympic recognition, a sport must be official in at least five continents and 40 countries, and each of those countries must hold a championship. World OCR currently has 88 countries that hold regular competitions and more than 60 countries with national championships and which compete in international championships.<\/p>\n

World OCR has six medal events in the SEA Games, a regional Games for 11 countries in South East Asia under regulation of the International Olympic Committee. Race distances in these Games include 100m (10 obstacles), 400m (12 obstacles) and 5 km (20 obstacles.)<\/p>\n

The 2nd Ninja OCR World Championships will be in Russia in 2020. This is a head to head race format, similar to the Ninja versus Ninja television show, on a 160 m long course with 12 Ninja obstacles.<\/p>\n