Hosting the Ninja Sport Championship Finals in Apex – February 18-19, 2023

Many are familiar with the reality TV show, “American Ninja Warrior” (ANW).  But they may not know that the show inspired a sport that has a life of its own.  For every athlete that is featured on ANW, there are a dozen or more other athletes that compete in the sport and are as competitive as anyone you may have seen on the show.

There are multiple regional and national leagues, but the Ninja Sport Championship series is the highest level of the sport.  Only 4 female and 4 male athletes qualified for the finals at each of a series of 8 qualifying competitions at hand-selected ninja warrior gyms across the nation.

Those 32 female and 32 male elite athletes will be descending on Apex, North Carolina to compete for the highest honor in the sport at Rock Solid Warrior on February 18th and 19th.

Rock Solid Warrior’s newest location in Apex, was selected due to the unique innovation of its facility as well as the reputation for obstacle course design of its Ninja Experience Director, Caleb Auer.  Caleb first began competing in the sport in 2017, and made it to the Las Vegas finals of ANW in 2019, the same year Rock Solid Warrior opened its first location.  While Caleb’s design and building skills have earned him the reputation to land the honor of hosting the finals, Caleb’s younger brother, Joshua, is attained greater heights in the sport.  He’s one of the athletes qualified to compete for the championship and has been completely kept in the dark as to what his brother Caleb has planned for the finals.  The Auer Family – including the two brothers and Caleb’s wife Hannah – won the American Ninja Warrior Family Championship last year.  But only Josh will be competing in the finals against ANW Champion Kaden Lebsack several other stars of the show that have come out of the sport and many who have never been on the show.  Another ANW star Jesse “Flex” Labreck as well as Australian Ninja Warrior star Olivia Vivian will be highlighting the women’s group of competitors.  They’ll all be competing to unseat last year’s champions: Taylor Greene and Nacssa Garemore who will be returning.

One of the unique features of the Ninja Sport Championship series is that the athletes have to be prepared for anything, not knowing what the course design looks like before the day of the competition.  The finals will consist of two rounds.  In the preliminary round on Saturday, qualified athletes will be competing on three separate courses built to emphasize either speed, technical challenge, and endurance.  Only the top 10 female and 10 female athletes will advance to the final round on Sunday based on their combined finished on those three courses.  For the final round, these athletes will face modified versions of each of those courses to determine who is this year’s champions.

The Ninja Sport Championship series was the brainchild of legendary Ninja Warrior Athletes, Chris DiGangi and Ethan Swanson who founded the Ninja Sport Network in 2021.

There will be limited number of spectators at this event, but an unlimited amount of displays of athletic prowess.

For more information, contact Ken Auer, CEO and Marketing Director of Rock Solid Warrior at ken.auer@rocksolidwarrior.com