Although Luke Beckstrand, a teen from St. George, Utah, was a No. 1 seed going into the finals of “American Ninja Warrior,” he quickly found himself on the brink of elimination.
Sixty ninjas — including Luke and his older brother, Kai — are competing in the Season 17 finals, which started Aug. 4 and continue Monday night.
In a new format, the show divided the 60 competitors into groups of four based on their runtimes. Ninjas in each group have to face off against each other in a series of one-on-one races. After everyone in a group has run against each other, the two competitors with the most wins advance to the next round.
Luke Beckstrand had a win and a loss under his belt when it came time for him to compete against Elijah Browning, who at that point was 2-0.
With a shot at the $250,000 grand prize still on the line, Beckstrand, a contender to win the whole season, put all of his energy and focus into a race that proved to be one of the more entertaining matchups of the round.
The Utah teen started off fast but then lost some momentum near the end of the course. When it looked like Browning was about to pull off his third straight win, Beckstrand pulled ahead at the last minute and was first to the buzzer, completing the course in a little over 54 seconds.
“And he keeps his season alive!” “ANW” host Matt Iseman exclaimed. “That was spectacular! What a nail-biter!”
But after the adrenaline-fueled excitement, when Iseman asked Beckstrand to walk him through those last few seconds, the teen was calm and composed.
“I knew I had to keep going,” he said. “I just kept working my way through it.”
“What happened is he’s a Beckstrand, bro,” Browning, his competitor, added with a laugh. “That’s what happened.”
With the come-from-behind win, Beckstrand secured his spot in the next round of the finals.
On Monday night, Kai Beckstrand will also vie for a spot in the next round with his younger brother.
The brothers recently spoke with the Deseret News about their dominating runs this season — and how being some of the fastest ninjas on the show affects their rivalry.
‘We’re always pushing each other’
“‘American Ninja Warrior’ is kind of our life at this point,” Kai Beckstrand tells the Deseret News during a recent Zoom call, with Luke by his side.
The brothers are chatting from The Grip, their family’s gym in St. George. It’s where they spend the majority of their time, coaching and inspiring kids who hope to someday compete on their level.
It’s also where they themselves train for “American Ninja Warrior.”
At the gym, the brothers regularly work on their strength and speed as they build familiarity and comfort with obstacles they could potentially come across on the show. They frequently try to outdo their own times — and each other.
“In training, we’re always pushing each other,” Kai Beckstrand says. “If he gets a faster time than me, I’ll run that course again, beat his time. He’ll go back, beat my time again. So it just goes back and forth.”
That dynamic has played out on this season of “American Ninja Warrior.”
The brothers delivered the two fastest times of their episode during the show’s first round: Kai completed the course in 52.90 seconds, and Luke came in just slightly behind with a time of 54.92 seconds.
During the semifinals, it looked like Kai would again secure the fastest time of the night.
But then the 19-year-old reached the Invisible Ladder — an obstacle that requires hanging onto two rings and hoisting yourself up 30 feet to the buzzer — and it was a big demand for his 180-pound body.
“I kind of gassed out on that last obstacle, took a lot longer than I wanted to,” Kai told the Deseret News.
He ended up hitting the buzzer in roughly 3 minutes and 45 seconds — an impressive feat, but not the fastest time of the night.
Instead, that distinction went to Luke, who, with a little more gas in his tank, navigated all 10 obstacles in 3 minutes and 12 seconds — more than 30 seconds ahead of his older brother.
“I knew I could beat it, but I didn’t know that I would beat it by 30 seconds,” Luke Beckstrand said. “That was a big amount of time, but I just stayed smooth through all the obstacles, didn’t take as much of a break, and I was just chasing down that time.”
For the second time in a row, the brothers ended up securing the two fastest times of their episode — though this time the top spot went to Luke.
“Watching him get the fastest time, it’s a little bittersweet,” Kai Beckstrand said. “I want him to do as good as possible, and if that is going faster than me, then that’s the case. So it definitely pushed me in training to kind of get more efficient with my obstacles.
“But I mean, overall, just looking up at him on top, I couldn’t be more proud of him,” he continued. “He’s my training partner, and we go back and forth all the time. So can’t really be too mad about it. ... It’s just a testament to how hard we’re putting in the work.”
The biggest obstacles on ‘American Ninja Warrior’
Kai and Luke Beckstrand are so well-trained for “American Ninja Warrior” that they really don’t stress too much — or at all — about navigating the courses.
Instead, their biggest obstacles in competing stem more from outside influences.
“American Ninja Warrior” doesn’t begin filming until the sun sets. This season, that meant the Beckstrands were running around 1:30 or 2 in the morning.
Getting a good night’s sleep makes a world of difference when it comes to keeping your energy up and competing at that time — but it can also be tricky to rest if the adrenaline has kicked in.
And for Kai, who is a Type 1 diabetic, it means a long day of managing what he eats so he can keep his blood sugar in check for an optimal performance.
Kai ran into this issue during his “ANW” debut back in Season 13. As a then-15-year-old, he’d made it all the way to Stage 2 of the finals. But as his time came to compete, he noted that his blood sugar was “way too high.”
“As I stepped up to the starting block, my vision was a little blurry. I was kind of already a little fatigued going into the course,” he said, recalling how he splashed down on the first obstacle and got eliminated.
“I knew I was capable in the ideal circumstances to complete that course, so just not fun to go out that way,” Kai said. “But since then, I’ve been a lot more on top of keeping that in check.”
Now the 19-year-old, who is competing on the show for the fourth time and is a favorite to win this season, is heading to the finals.
The new format, featuring a series of one-on-one races, plays to his advantage. And he’s feeling pretty confident.
“Speed’s always been my favorite thing,” he said with a smile.