{"id":204809,"date":"2025-12-26T11:06:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T11:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/204809\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T11:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T11:06:08","slug":"american-sasuke-contestant-defied-the-odds-to-land-in-top-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/204809\/","title":{"rendered":"American \u201cSasuke\u201d contestant defied the odds to land in top three"},"content":{"rendered":"

Josh Levin, a veteran of reality competition show \u201cAmerican Ninja Warrior<\/a>\u201d and a decorated rock climber, defied the odds, landing in the top three of the original impossible-obstacle show, Japan\u2019s \u201cSasuke,\u201d or \u201cNinja Warrior.\u201d<\/p>\n

International competitors are a rarity on \u201cSasuke.\u201d But for the show\u2019s 43rd season, the producers opened the doors to 22 international athletes, in addition to 100 Japanese competitors. Levin, a Northeastern University-trained mechanical engineer, was one of five Americans to compete this year. He made it further than any other international competitor and only one other person made it farther in the four-stage obstacle course than him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a rare opportunity,\u201d Levin said. \u201cIt\u2019s a huge honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Competing on \u201cSasuke\u201d is a proving ground for any athlete, but for Levin, it\u2019s been a lifelong dream. Appearing on the show was rewarding and surreal in equal measure. He was able to compete alongside the man who originally inspired him to take on the challenge: Makoto Nagano, aka the World\u2019s Strongest Fisherman.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200b\u200bIt was cool to have that full circle moment for me as a fan, as a contestant, and coming back to why I got into it in the first place,\u201d Levin said.<\/p>\n

On \u201cSasuke,\u201d the only way to win is by completing all four stages of a notoriously difficult obstacle course that involves climbing, running, swinging on ropes and jumping across platforms. The most iconic \u201cNinja Warrior\u201d obstacles are simple yet demanding, like the Warped Wall, a towering, steeply curved wall that contestants must climb to the top of. The ultimate goal is to achieve Kanzenseiha, or total victory, by completing all four stages. Contestants on the show aren\u2019t competing against one another; they are competing against the course itself. Only four people, including Nagano, have ever scored a total victory in the show\u2019s 28-year history. Levin embodies that spirit as an athlete and competitor.<\/p>\n

\u201cJosh is humble, enormously talented and his mental game is crazy strong, but most of all he is a good friend who is fighting the [course] and not you as [a] competing athlete and always wants the best for others,\u201d said Joel Mattli, a Swiss \u201cNinja Warrior\u201d competitor and training partner and friend of Levin\u2019s.<\/p>\n

After competing on \u201cAmerican Ninja Warrior\u201d four times, most recently in 2022, Levin, a rock climber with 19 National Championships under his belt and a mechanical engineer\u2019s eye for physics, knew it was time to jump in the deep end.<\/p>\n

\"APhoto by NBC<\/p>\n

\"APhoto by Fran\u00e7ois Lebeau
\nA seasoned competitor on \u201cAmerican Ninja Warrior\u201d and champion rock climber, Josh Levin brought a mechanical engineer\u2019s mindset to his approach on \u201cSasuke.\u201d Photo by NBC and Fran\u00e7ois Lebeau<\/p>\n

The reality that he would be among a select few international contestants didn\u2019t sink in until he got on set and started filming. The entire season was shot in one grueling 22-hour day that left Levin battered, bruised and beaming.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was one of the craziest days of my entire life for sure,\u201d Levin said.<\/p>\n

The obstacles were the most challenging he\u2019s ever encountered, but, as an engineer, their dastardly creativity was stunning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On \u201cAmerican Ninja Warrior,\u201d the obstacles are purely mechanical. On \u201cSasuke,\u201d they include motorized components that move and behave in ways that are designed to mess with competitors. The course ends up looking like \u201csomething out of a mad scientist\u2019s invention shop,\u201d Levin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got this one shot, and you have to be mentally prepared for various scenarios to react as quickly as possible,\u201d Mattli said.<\/p>\n

One challenge that Levin dreaded was the Fish Bone. It\u2019s seemingly simple: Competitors must balance and jump across a series of pedestals without falling off to make it to the end. Meanwhile, rotating bars spin above the competitors\u2019 heads and threaten to knock them off balance.<\/p>\n

Levin made it past the Fish Bone in stage one, but not everyone was so lucky.<\/p>\n

Only 12 out of the 122 contestants who started the show made it to stage two of the obstacle course. Levin was one of 10 to advance to stage three.<\/p>\n

He made it all the way to an obstacle called the Cliffhanger, a thin ledge that contestants have to navigate using narrow handholds. It should be a dream for an experienced rock climber. Instead, it was Levin\u2019s literal downfall.<\/p>\n

On \u201cSasuke,\u201d the obstacle has moving ledges that the contestants have to jump to. At one juncture, Levin had to transfer from ledge to ledge, twisting 180 degrees in mid-air to catch himself on a handhold small enough for only his fingertips to grasp. Ultimately, Levin mistimed his jump and fell, splashing into the water below.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the combination of I made it really far and felt really good about my performance and I was bummed I didn\u2019t go further, especially on an obstacle I think played to my strengths,\u201d Levin said.<\/p>\n

Although Levin didn\u2019t achieve total victory, he still sees \u201cSasuke\u201d as the pinnacle of his life on and off the obstacle course. He got to compete alongside his hero, Nagano, and even got a \u201cgood luck\u201d from the man himself in a pinch-me moment that would have made Levin\u2019s 15-year-old self faint.<\/p>\n

As rewarding as the experience was, for Levin, the show was always about more than just an obstacle course. He firmly believes his appearance on the show is proof of what people can do when they work together, even if it is just throwing themselves at a foam wall.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to be able to say, look, people who are different from you, let\u2019s bring us together, celebrate our differences and actually use our strengths and our backgrounds in different areas to figure out how to overcome these particular obstacles,\u201d Levin said. \u201cThat\u2019s true for any challenge that we find ourselves facing in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Josh Levin, a veteran of reality competition show \u201cAmerican Ninja Warrior\u201d and a decorated rock climber, defied the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[114922,146,85,46,1437,114923,33583,411],"class_list":["post-204809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-american-ninja-warrior","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-japan","tag-josh-levin","tag-mechanical-engineering","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}