As the “American Ninja Warrior” season winds down, Kai and Luke Beckstrand, brothers from St. George, Utah, continue to be some of the toughest competitors on the show.
But now, after several weeks of successfully navigating challenging obstacle courses that put upper body strength and balance to the test — not to mention clocking some of the fastest times out of all the ninjas — there’s a good chance one brother might end up eliminating the other in the quest to win the $250,000 grand prize.
Kai and Luke Beckstrand in the ‘ANW’ Season 17 finale
Sixty ninjas — including Kai and his younger brother, Luke— have been competing in the Season 17 finals, which started Aug. 4 and conclude Monday night.
For the first round of the finals, the show took on a new format and divided 60 competitors into groups of four based on their runtimes. Ninjas in each group faced off against each other in a series of one-on-one races. After everyone in a group ran against each other, the two competitors with the most wins advanced to the next round.
Now in his fourth season of “ANW,” 19-year-old Kai Beckstrand won every race in his bracket — and completed each of his three runs in under a minute.
He finished his last race, against five-time competitor Isabella Folsom, in a staggering 44:09 — marking, by just a tenth of a second, the new fastest time of all the competitors on that specific course.
Seventeen-year-old Luke Beckstrand, meanwhile, had a thrilling come-from-behind win in the first round to keep his season alive and move forward with his brother.
After the first round, “ANW” shifted to a single elimination bracket-style play. The Utah brothers each won their next races — and Kai Beckstrand again secured the fastest time of the night (59:11).
“Gotta start off with a strong run,” he told “ANW” hosts Matt Iseman and Akbar Gbajabiamila.
Kai and Luke Beckstrand have been some of the speediest ninjas all season long — during the semifinals, Luke actually beat his older brother’s time on the course by more than 30 seconds — but so far, they haven’t had to directly race against each other.
That could change Monday night.
If both brothers win their next races, the “ANW” hosts said, they will have to go head-to-head for a spot in the final four.
‘We’re always pushing each other’
Although the brothers have never gone head-to-head on “American Ninja Warrior,” it’s something they do all the time at their family’s ninja-themed gym in St. George.
As they work out and train for the show, they frequently try to outdo their own times — and each other.
“In training, we’re always pushing each other,” Kai Beckstrand previously told the Deseret News. “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.”
The brothers are constantly motivating each other at home, but that intensifies when they’re in the spotlight on a competitive show like “American Ninja Warrior.”
“Watching him get the fastest time, it’s a little bittersweet,” Kai Beckstrand previously said of his younger brother beating his time in the semifinals. “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 ... 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 “American Ninja Warrior” season finale airs Monday at 7 p.m. MDT on NBC.