US Ninja World Cup and National Team Trials,

About the event

This is a historic day for all members of the ninja community from the NinjaUSA board to the athletes and the fans. There have been so many hours and dollars put into this and the number of people who have contributed is endless.

This amazing sport is said to have started in a small village in Japan over 40 years ago. In 1997 Monster 9 created the first competition and as the snowball continued to roll and grow, we became enamored with NBC’s American Ninja Warrior. Kids and adults all across the world began building makeshift backyard and playground courses, gyms started to add these little ninja rigs and then one day leagues started to form and real ninja gyms became commonplace everywhere. 

Ninja is a sport more based on failure than success. It is a tempered tool in life in many ways. The idea that the only way to get better at ninja is to try things you can’t do, serves a greater role in life than in sport. As you enter the community built around the sport, you will notice a very inclusive and welcoming environment at the lowest level. Walking into a gym feels like elementary school recess but with all of only the best of friends. The support and love when you first arrive is something most parents search for to show their children the qualities that build great humans. This leads to friendships and bonds built on struggle, success, pain and joy. The cheers when you complete an obstacle are only matched by the praise for all you gave if you didn't. 

For these reasons and so many more, ninja has caught the attention of the international sport system. It has proven over time that it has a viewership. NBC’s ANW has held consistent ratings for a decade and the event produced under World Obstacle in Poland in the middle of the pandemic has over 84 million views on it’s digital media platforms. Ninja has also proven it has the participation needed to fuel a larger mainstream sport and platform a robust NCAA format. Combine all of those factors in with the ability to produce a dynamic head to head obstacle race with some of the greatest athletes and larger than life personalities and you have what many believe to be the most entertaining event in sport. 

Recently an announcement was made that an obstacle event was being tested for inclusion in modern pentathlon on the Olympic program after 2024.  This means that the international sport community, federations and governance system is primed to keep a close watch and see just what we can do. Along with that, the ninja community is excited at the possibility of an event on the Olympic program and would love a stand-alone medal event. Our job as federations is to represent their wishes to the best of our abilities. The road to this outcome is not easy. We must be able to prove that the community is united in this goal, that the community is willing to implement the safety and fair play initiatives that lead to the development of good sport, and that we can put on amazing events that look, feel and run like international games events at the highest level. We must also learn to adjust. We have to be able to understand that times change and athlete’s change. We have to know our roles as athletes, coaches, owners, leagues, parents and directors. We must show the international sports community that we understand that sometimes we will have to put the sport above our personal wants and needs to make sure that it is right for the generations after us. Great men and women plant seeds of which the shade is never felt. This is our duty. We have to show them we will put in the time and effort needed to bring ninja to the forefront. This cannot be bought with money, the only currency is hard work and we will have to pay in full up front to achieve our goals. .

 There will be many US National Team Trials and World Cups, but only this one will crown the first US National Ninja Team in history, and we want it to be the single greatest event ninja has ever seen. With the crowning of the first National Team as well as 2 Junior National Teams, this event will bring some of the greatest ninjas in our country together to vie for the chance to sit in a place in history no others can. 

The event will consist of 3 days of racing. The top 32 times in each division in qualifying will move on to the round of champions on Sunday. Those 32 individuals will then be seeded according to their times and race head to head to determine the top 5 in each division who will become the US National Team. All competitors in the competition will also accrue points towards the World Cup series. This will be the second WC in the series with the first in the Philippines on August 6-7.  In 2023, we will host 4 regional qualifiers for US National Team Trials which will take place in November of 2023. These qualifiers will be regional and run in the same format as this event. The top 32 from each division will move on to the trials and operate just like the competition in October.

The event will also give us a chance to learn more from our community. The feedback the athletes give us will be key. As a federation we strive to not just hear our sports athletes and community, but rather to listen and adjust to fit what is best for who we represent. Our goal is to shape ninja with the athletes at the helm and provide them with the safest, fairest and purest sport possible. We know we won’t be perfect, it’s inevitable that mistakes will be made, feelings will get hurt and people will feel left out. We will try to the best of our ability to make sure that every person in our community feels included regardless of their ability, race, creed, color, sexual orientation or social economic status. We are here to guide the sport that all it’s athlete’s love, to the pinnacle of international games.

Aligned with all of the amazing opportunities this October event provides comes the formation of the first true team sport in ninja. Launching in 2023 is the NinjaUSA National Team Series. Gyms will have the opportunity to compete against each other in a number of regional events hosted at venues across the country. This league will set a format platform in line with existing NCAA sports as well as give valuable beta and ideas to the formation of a true professional league. Ninja has many elite divisions of leagues but lacks the ability to fund a true professional sport. This step is crucial in bringing ninja to the forefront of mainstream production sport. Each gym will have a number of athletes in a number of divisions both male and female that compete against each other for team points. There is no individual aspect to this in the traditional sense as it is completely geared towards finding the country's greatest gym team. As we look to enter the next levels of sport we must do so in ways that put us in line and on the radar of the governing bodies of not only international and national sports but also collegiate athletics.  

Why should you sponsor?

As we continue to build out the program within the US and globally in our advanced towards Olympic inclusions, we are looking for sponsors and partners that want to grow with us.   This is a highly enaging sport to participate and watch with a growing fan base and future is bright as we continue to make progress towards our a long list of firsts that lay before us.

Clay Little

The Ninja Passport is the administrative partner for NinjaUSA and working with Fitness Innovations to produce the first Ninja USA World Cup and National Team Trials as part of a series of World Cups from World Obstacles.

NinjaUSA is the national governing body for Ninja and events in the United States of America. It is a technical committee of USA Pentathlon Multisport (USAPM), which is a member of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), and a member of World Obstacle, the Fédération Internationale de Sports obstacles (FISO is the world governing body for obstacle sports) and a member of the Pan American Obstacle Sports Federation, the continental association of FISO member federations in the Americas. They are a not-for-profit organization with our national office in Colorado Springs, Colorado. 

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