Shelter Islander on the brink of American Ninja Warrior finals
That young man you see flying through the air with the greatest of ease is 23-year-old Luke Lowell-Liszanckie of Shelter Island, who has made it to the highly competitive semifinal round of American Ninja Warriors.
Will he advance to the even more challenging final competition? We’ll find out Monday night, when the latest round of jumping, swinging and running airs on NBC at 8 p.m.
Mr. Lowell-Liszanckie has been a devotee of the sport since the age of 7, when he first saw the popular obstacle course competition on television. “I was always competitive and athletic, but I didn’t align with team sports,” he recalled the other day. “If my parents lost track of me, all they had to do was look up into the trees.”
The first television installment of American Ninja Warrior arrived in the United States in 2009. The format has evolved over the years, but now consists of qualifying rounds with hundreds of contestants leading to three sets of semifinals with a total of 120. Mr. Lowell-Liszanckie is one of those.
The precise obstacles vary, but all are designed to test agility, strength and speed. That includes the Spider Climb, the Warped Wall and lots of swinging from ring to ring. The event to be televised Monday took place last fall.
Mr. Lowell-Liszanckie started to get serious about the sport at 17, first visiting a gym in Brooklyn. Now he regularly trains at Smithtown Ninja Academy. “As a kid I was fascinated by rock climbing and gymnastics, and ninja is a combination of all those movement sports,” he explained.
He kept at it when he went away to college at SUNY Plattsburgh, competing in local events. When the 17th season of the show rolled around, he felt he was ready. Along with about 77,000 others, he sent in an application, and also a three-minute audition video. He’s now made it through the prelims and into the semis.
“This is my greatest dream,” he said.
Sixty athletes will go on to the finals, with a new set of obstacles. One fall and you’re out. If someone beats your time, you’re out. The ultimate winner will take home $250,000, but Mr. Lowell-Liszanckie says that’s not what’s driving him. It’s about the sport and the people he meets.
“Ninja comes from a place of love,” he said. “It’s an inclusive and positive community – you’re not competing against another person, you’re competing against yourself.”
Whatever the outcome of the next competition, Mr. Lowell-Liszanckie plans to stay involved with the sport. He’ll be a coach, teaching the skills he’s pretty much mastered.
“Our bodies were designed to move,” he says. “I want other people to get involved, to be a better version of themselves.”
