With season 13 beginning with more than 400 competitors and, for the first time in ANW history, with the age limit to compete lowered to 15 years old, Parade.com caught up with Iseman and Gbajabiamila to get the scoop on what to expect from this year’s competition. The growth on the show has been incredible over the years. There were 400 competitors that started this season. What do you think is the attraction? To me maybe it’s that you’re only really competing with yourself to see how far you can get. Matt Iseman: That’s a good point. We’re in season 13 and people have been watching the show. What I love is every year we have a story of somebody who the season before sat on the couch watching with their kids, with some loved one, and they said, “I could do that.” And then they challenge themselves to get in shape and come out. And so, we see people from all different backgrounds, all different walks of lives, all on some journey of their own, with the quest being: Can they be better than they were the day before? I think the allure of the show is seeing people overcome the obstacles, not just on the course, but in their lives. Akbar Gbajabiamila: The big thing is the inspiration that draws them to do amazing things. This season we have a mother by the name of Lindsay Eskildsen. She competed this year after giving birth just three months ago. As a father of four and seeing the toll that pregnancy took on my wife for our four kids, you just go, “How is that possible?” But it’s just the relatability from the everyday folks who are competing, some of them give every bit of their life to Ninja Warrior but others, like Matt talked about, are sitting on the couch and going, “I can do that. I’m going to get in shape and I’m going to try out for this.” I think that’s why it bleeds into the fabric of our culture, and it’s been around for quite a long time. What else is really cool about ANW in my mind; this is one sport where men and women are treated equally, where there’s gender integration. They compete on the same obstacle course. Do you feel like you’re representing the fact that women are equals? Akbar Gbajabiamila: Well, the beauty of this is that it’s a ninja versus the obstacles. So, to me, it speaks louder than anything. You can take your athletic background, you can take your strength, you can take your weakness, and you put it all out there. For me, I ran the course as a guy who’s not the “typical” size of a ninja. I’m 6-feet 6-inches, 260 pounds. I step onto the course and it’s me versus my height, my weight, and I’m just putting myself out there. I think the person’s run tells its own story. When you have men and women competing on the course, to me, I think the beauty of it is that they’re telling a story. It seems to me that women may need to be a little stronger than the men in order to make it across. Matt Iseman: We see people having different skill sets coming out. One of the great things has been in seeing our women ninja warriors getting out there. Kacy Catanzaro back in season 6 was the one that really showed women this sport was open, that anyone could do it. Since then, it’s been an explosion of women challenging themselves and rising to the occasion. Now that we’ve lowered the age to 15, we have people from 15 to over 70 and 4-foot 8 to 6-foot 7, all different weights, different abilities, different challenges. But when they’re on the course they’re all the same; they are an athlete. Akbar Gbajabiamila: I’ll also add that we’ve had people who are differently abled, as well. We’ve had amputees come out and compete and go pretty deep on the course, as well. I think that’s to be celebrated. I’m particularly happy when I see the women out there competing against the course—obviously, there are men competing against the course, as well, but you see them in this equitable platform, and it gives inspiration to my daughter who loves watching the Meagan Martins, the Jessie Graffs, the Jesse Labrecks and all of the top women competitors. It makes me happy; it makes me proud. Let’s speak to the age limit being lowered. What have you seen so far in these teenagers that are coming out? Matt Iseman: We had American Ninja Warrior Junior, where we got a glimpse of what the young athletes would do. We knew they were strong. We’ve seen them in submission videos, we’ve seen them competing before where we know they could do the obstacles. What we didn’t know was could they handle the pressure of being on the big stage, of competing against these other ninjas they’ve grown up watching, and the reality of $1 million now being the prize for them. We’ve been blown away at the maturity, the poise, the athleticism and the fun. These kids are out there and they’re having such a good time on the course. I know our other ninjas are feeling like they have to step up their games to keep up with the teen invasion. Are there any other changes this season? I know that you went back to Tacoma for the first trials. What else will we see? Akbar Gbajabiamila: We’re bringing back the Power Tower and we’ve revamped it, so there’s a new twist to the Power Tower. I think that’s always amazing to see the ninjas going head-to-head for a safety pass in Las Vegas. That gives them the ability if they fall in Las Vegas, they get a reboot, like a mulligan. That’s always exciting. Matt Iseman: We’ve also got an obstacle called Split Decision. For the first time ever, ninjas are going to have a choice on the course as to which obstacle they want to tackle. Sometimes it’ll be a balance obstacle, sometimes it’ll be an upper body obstacle. But ninjas often say, “Man, if it hadn’t been for that one obstacle, I might have had a chance.” Well, now for the first time ever, we’re giving them a choice of what kind of obstacle they want to tackle. Akbar Gbajabiamila: Let me add to that. That plays a lot of head games with the ninjas. As a former athlete, I can say, you’re stressed out, you’re fatigued mentally, and physically, and then you get to a point where you’ve got to make a decision. That’s never been done before on the show. Then you’re second guessing yourself, “Should I take this one or should I take the other one?” It makes for very interesting runs this year. You’re either going to regret it, or you’re going to be celebrating that you took the right path. Matt Iseman: Anytime you’re sitting in the water, there’s going to be a bit of regret. Which fan favorites will be returning? Matt Iseman: We’ve got Mathis “The Kid” Owhadi; Daniel Gil; Joel Moravsky, the weatherman; Jesse “Flex” Labreck is coming back, Meagan Martin. Some of the young athletes from American Ninja Warrior Junior, athletes like Isabella Wakeham and her brother, Isaiah Wakeham, they’re going to be competing side by side. Akbar Gbajabiamila: Elijah Browning. Matt Iseman: If you’re fans of Ninja Junior, you’ll see some greats. And fans of the show are going to see some of their all-time favorite ninjas coming out. The Cowboy Ninja, Lance Pekus, is going to be riding again. It was so nice to have almost 400 athletes tackle the course this season. Akbar Gbajabiamila: Something else that’s special, too, we’ve got special guest appearances by Olympic athletes this year, who are fans of the show, who will be streaming in to watch the runs of the ninjas, so that’s pretty cool. Allyson Felix, just to name one. But it’s going to be pretty exciting this year. These athletes now are getting coverage on ESPN and there’s gyms that are built that are specializing in ninja warrior training, so there’s no doubt in my mind that these competitors are athletes. But do they compare to professionals in the way that there’s a Serena Williams or a Usain Bolt? Those two are paid to train. The ninjas, they’re doing it for love, right? Akbar Gbajabiamila: Yeah, well it depends on how you’re asking the question. Athletically, absolutely 100 percent, I think I can speak to that having played in the NFL. What these athletes put themselves through is remarkable. I would argue that they are probably closer to Olympic athletes because they get one shot during the year. That’s a lot of stress to have just that one shot. During an NBA or NFL season, you have multiple games throughout the season to be able to get better. If you lose one game that’s all right, you’ll come back and have another. This one, you’ve got to come all the way back. There’s a lot of stress that’s built up in that because you have to wait 364 days to be able to get another opportunity. Everything that they do physically and mentally is right up there, if not more intense, than the traditional athletes that we’ve seen. They just don’t make the same type of money. Matt Iseman: We do have some professional ninjas, though. Guys like Jake Murray, who now full-time travel around. Because of the popularity of the show, there have been contests that have cropped up around the country. Jake has been going from contest to contest supporting himself with his ninja winnings. But the way we see a lot of them go professional is they open up gyms, they become coaches, and they teach other people who may not even want to compete on the show, but they love the idea of having a challenge to get physically fit. I think so many people who start training for Ninja Warrior, they just want to feel better than they did before and challenge themselves to be physically better than they’ve ever been. Akbar, you mentioned that your size affects how you do the obstacle course. Have you tried it, and have you been successful? Akbar Gbajabiamila: Yeah, I did it. In 2018, I ran the course. I wanted to push myself. Sitting up there as the former NFL guy, I thought to myself, “Could I do that?” I’m doing just what the fans are, I’m asking myself the same question. Because I was inspired by what I’d seen from the athletes, I said, “I’m going to give it a go,” but I wanted to give it everything I had. So, I trained for three months, which isn’t probably nearly as much time as I needed. But I spent three months training with Kevin Bull, and I was able to compete on the celebrity edition of American Ninja Warrior back in 2018. I was able to hit a buzzer, so that was cool. But it changed the way I call the sport. There’s just so much more respect. I did come in with a little bit of NFL arrogance in that, “Well, I played in the NFL and the NFL is America’s sport. Everybody loves football.” But once I stepped on that course it changed the emphasis, the exclamation, the punctuation, and the respect that I just give these athletes. I’ve always had respect for them, but it just climbed off the charts after I ran it back in 2018. Matt, did you try it? Matt Iseman: I’ve tried it numerous times. The results were so stellar they decided not to show them on TV. I will say that there may have been a hospitalization and a foot surgery afterwards. But, once again, a healthy respect was gained for what our athletes do on the course. American Ninja Warrior premieres Monday, May 31 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. Next, hosts Matt, Akbar and Kristine of American Ninja Warrior: Get off the couch and start training.
