This Utah teen is 30 seconds away from $1 million

As a three-time competitor on “ American Ninja Warrior ,” Kai Beckstrand ’s approach to the show has largely stayed the same: “If you’re nervous for it, then you’re not ready for it.”

That’s not to say he doesn’t get nervous when he competes. Jitters on national television are practically inevitable, he said, but once it’s his turn to run an “ANW” obstacle course that puts upper body strength and balance to the test, Beckstrand is able to push down his nerves and let his preparation for the big moment propel him to the buzzer.

“If you have doubts in your mind of how you’re going to perform, then you haven’t put in enough work to be confident,” he told the Deseret News in a recent phone interview.

And the 18-year-old from St. George, Utah, has put in a lot of work. He’s trained extensively at his family’s ninja-themed gyms in Southern Utah while balancing school and firefighter training.

Beckstrand was 15 when he made his “American Ninja Warrior” debut and made it to the finals (he was also one of the youngest and fastest competitors of the season).

When he came back for Season 15, he was even faster — and was a favorite to win the whole show until he had a surprising fall during Stage 1 of the four-stage finals course that ended his run.

Now, Beckstrand is back again. And this time, he’s in uncharted territory. For the first time in his “American Ninja Warrior” career, Beckstrand has made it all the way to Stage 4 — the last stage of the finals course.

It’s the only obstacle keeping him from the show’s $1 million prize. To win the money, he’ll have to climb a 75-foot rope in 30 seconds — a feat only a handful of competitors have accomplished in the show’s 15 seasons.

Ahead of the Season 16 finale Monday night — which airs on NBC and will feature Beckstrand’s attempt at the climb — the teen reflected on how he bounced back from a disappointing end to Season 15 to reach his biggest moment on “ANW.”

A shocking elimination

Perhaps no one was more surprised than Beckstrand when he came splashing down on the Jumping Spider obstacle in Stage 1 last season.

The obstacle requires competitors to jump off of a trampoline and stick the landing between two walls, and climb up and across the walls before jumping down onto a landing platform. It’s tricky, but it’s an obstacle Beckstrand had cruised through during his “American Ninja Warrior” debut two seasons prior. He was visibly shocked when he lost his balance and fell in the water.

“We’ve had surprises all night, but this has gotta be the biggest!” one of the announcers exclaimed . “Kai Beckstrand, a favorite to win it all, is out.”

In his disappointment, the teen remembered how down he felt after he fell on Stage 2 during his first season on the show in 2021. Up until that point, he had cleared every obstacle he’d come across. To go out on the first obstacle of Stage 2, he said, “hit deep.”

But then he talked to “ANW” veteran Joe Moravsky — a ninja favorite who has competed on every season of the show since Season 5. Moravsky, who has made it to Stage 3 multiple times, fell on the same obstacle Beckstrand did that night. Ups and downs happen, Moravsky told the teen, but the most important part of it all was to not let it get to you.

“I kind of went with that same idea (in Season 15), when I fell on the Jumping Spider,” Beckstrand recalled. “So then I just knew that it was alright, I was going to get that second chance.”

For Beckstrand, a chance at redemption came just two days later, as the show deviated from its typical schedule and filmed Seasons 15 and 16 back-to-back. This was the best case scenario for the teen: He was already in the zone and knew he had the skill to pull it off.

“A lot of people, when they go down, they kind of think about that for a whole year leading up to (the next season), but I knew it was a fluke. I just kind of rushed it a little too fast,” Beckstrand said. “So going into it the second time, I just kind of paused for a second there, made sure I was lined up and then once I had that, then I decided to go all out for the rest of the course.”

Beckstrand went on to complete Stage 1. And then he accomplished what he had really set out to do — get through Stage 2, since that was the farthest he’d made it in the past.

Then he just kept on going. Before he knew it, he was standing at the bottom of a 75-foot rope for the first time on “American Ninja Warrior.”

It was in that moment he wished he could’ve had a little more training in between seasons.

The rope climb

Beckstrand stood on the platform and held onto the rope. He looked up as the announcers went over the rules. The opening at the top of the tower, where he would climb through and hit the buzzer, loomed high above him.

For the first time, Beckstrand said, he realized just how far away 75 feet really was.

“I am not the best at rope climbing,” he said with a laugh.

That’s partly because he doesn’t have access to a rope that size (he’s only climbed a 75-foot rope twice, at a competition in Colorado). Beckstrand uses a 30-foot rope when he’s training, and although ascending that 2½ times is the same distance, he has to climb back down each time. That uses up a lot of energy, and doesn’t give him the same momentum.

So when he found himself standing at the base of the 75-foot rope on “American Ninja Warrior” for the very first time, Beckstrand said he felt “intimidated.”

And while he couldn’t divulge the outcome of the climb, the teen said this much: It felt like a lot less than 30 seconds.

If Beckstrand is the only competitor who completes the climb in 30 seconds, the $1 million is his — and he’d be only the fourth person in the show’s history to claim that prize.

If there’s multiple competitors who complete the climb in 30 seconds, the prize money goes to the person with the fastest time.

The teen already knows what he’d do with the money — “I would probably buy another car,” he said. “I’m sure my mom would not be too happy about that.”

Beckstrand recently completed a six-month fire academy course and is now in the process of applying for fire departments, but he’s still planning on coming back to “American Ninja Warrior” for Season 17. Filming begins at the end of the month.

And this time around, it’ll be a big family affair. He’s competing with his brother, Luke; his sister, Baylee; and his mother, Holly, according to a family Instagram post .

And although they’ll technically be competing against each other, they’ll also be each other’s built-in cheerleaders.

“We have the best support team every time we compete on ‘ANW,’” the Beckstrands said .