Ninja Warrior Course Eyed to Replace [Spoiler] at 2028 Summer Olympics
A Ninja Warrior obstacle course is under consideration to become a new part of the Modern Pentathlon event at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
The Modern Pentathlon had been comprised of swimming, fencing, running and shooting and horse riding disciplines. But after Germany’s coach Kim Raisner was disqualified from the 2020 Tokyo Games for hitting a horse, Saint Boy, as she tried to assist pentathlete Annika Schleu ahead of a show jumping round, it was decided last November to drop riding from the event.
A Ninja Warrior course — specifically, the one that is currently used to film local versions of the competition series in France, Poland and other European countries (featuring the Wall Flip, Parallel Pipes, Wind Chimes and Tire Swing obstacles) — will be tested on June 28 in Turkey as a possible replacement for the riding discipline. Olympic Pentathletes as well as Ninja Warrior champions from around the world will be among those putting the possible replacement through its paces, our sister site THR reports.
“UIPM (Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne) has undertaken a comprehensive and transparent process to transform Modern Pentathlon into one of the most popular, accessible and exciting sports on the Olympic program,” UIPM President Klaus Schormann said in a statement. “The upcoming first Obstacle Discipline Test Event in Ankara will be an important step and we look forward to watching pentathletes and obstacle athletes test themselves on the obstacles provided in collaboration with [Ninja Warrior‘s Japanese creator] TBS and the Fédération Internationale de Sports d’Obstacles.”
What do you think of Olympians doubling as Ninjas? And does the Wall Flip-Parallel Pipes-Wind Chimes-Tire Swing combo seem a bit vanilla, or suitably basic, if eventually included?
Such a stupid idea. You have these competitors who have spent their life training for the current disciplines and it’s bad enough that because of a single bad apple they are removing a discipline that will hinder many who are good riders but to replace it with an event that is in no way comparable is ridiculous. It’s potentially destroying some peoples careers.
This is another terrible idea in a long list of bad ideas from the federations and IOC. It detracts from the traditions of the Olympic Games and panders to television and spectators rather than the athletes. The additions of “sports” like wall climbing, softball and… omg, skateboarding into the Olympic Games is an insult to all the athletes that ever were “real” Olympians. The very idea of an Olympic medal for skateboarding is obscene, in my personal opinion. The modern pentathlon was based upon 19th century cavalry soldiers and their skills, so I suggest adding wrestling or judo as the fifth discipline. This would more accurately reflect the ancient Olympic Games and its modern equivalent. As an Olympic and sport historian it is sad to watch the Olympic Games and its traditions slip away into the circus of entertainment rather than a true sport event where the focus was on the participants and their mingling together for 2 weeks to develop bonds of friendship through sport. THEIR SPORT was the common language through which they could communicate, and today many athletes leave the Olympic Village and go home after their event. The IOC has lost its way, they should not allow the Federations to deviate from tradition they should require all athletes to remain for the entire duration of the Games and the focus should be on tradition, not television and sponsors. The ninja warrior skills are wonderful – I have no problem with that, but this does NOT belong in the Olympic Games. Just my opinion.
Weren’t a lot of athletes required to leave after their event last year because of the pandemic? I’m pretty sure health and safety should be valued over tradition.
This is stupid. As soon as the raitings for Ninja Warrior get low enough it’ll be cancelled & the only people who will rember it are the competitors. Why not just add every new vaguely popular new sport that will be forgotten in a few Yrs. They should just ban the one guy from working with horse
yeah that’s never happening and again american ninja warrior is a spion-off opf kesuske in japan which is still going i think keuske might be in it’s 4oth cycle now
Interesting. It’s good that the Olympics committee is working to modernize the Olympics games.