PLATTEVILLE — Sometimes, an opportunity presents itself to a person just once. Miss it, and the opportunity may be gone forever.
That is what Joshua Krohn of Platteville saw when the producers of G4’s “American Ninja Warriors” contacted him to see if he could get to Dallas in four days.
Four days after the call one Friday, Krohn, 28, was at the Cotton Bowl to compete in a regional tryout for the show, which features 100 competitors against “the world’s toughest obstacle course” between the contestants and the $500,000 grand prize.
The results of Krohn’s tryout are expected to be on “American Ninja Warriors” the week of June 3 or June 10. “American Ninja Warriors” is on G4 Sunday and Tuesday at 8 p.m., and on NBC Monday at 8 p.m. G4 is on CenturyLink channel 233 in Platteville, Mediacom channel 209 in Belmont and Potosi, Charter channel 81 in Livingston, and AT&T UVerse channel 149.
“I have the chance to either be on the clips or have my run shown in its entirety,” said Krohn. Regardless of result, Krohn will “keep trying to have a chance to do it again next year.”
Krohn described the show as similar to ABC-TV’s “Wipeout,” “except in ‘Wipeout,’ you’re going to get punched in the face no matter what you do. You can’t miss something; you’ll just get disqualified.”
“American Ninja Warrior” is based on a Japanese TV series, “Sasuke,” which the Tokyo Broadcasting System has carried since 1997. The U.S.-edited version of “Sasuke” was G4’s highest rated show before the channel produced its own version. “Sasuke” is shown in 18 countries and the Middle East.
“I’d seen the TV show, and when I first saw it I had a herniated disk, and I thought it’d be great to do this if I didn’t have a herniated disk,” said Krohn. “It was part of the reason why I had motivation to recover from my back injury.
“If we’d had this in high school, we’d have been all about that — that was the kind of stuff we loved to do.”
Krohn competed in cross country, basketball and baseball in high school, competed in golf and tennis at UW–Richland, and participated in intramurals at UW–Platteville.
“In winter, I do a lot of gym stuff —- it’s all upper body and exercising,” said Krohn, who also works out on the Smith Park parcourse.
Krohn completed a five-minute video with background about himself and what he’d do if he won the grand prize.
“They called on Friday and asked if I could be in Dallas on Tuesday,” he said. Krohn got vacation time from his employer, UW–Platteville, and flew to Dallas. He then had to wait nine hours before his turn at the obstacle course.
To succeed at the obstacle courses requires “body control and upper-body strength,” said Krohn. “There’s not much to test the legs after the start.
“Some obstacles you have to pace, and some you have to go all out. I guess it’ll always be an combination of control and speed.”
Krohn is prohibited from showing any video or photos of his competition.
More information about “American Ninja Warriors” can be found at www.g4tv.com/ninjawarrior/.
