LEWISBURG – Bucknell University student Tyler Behrle is still basking in the glow of fulfilling a lifelong dream of making it onto the biggest stage in ninja sports – an appearance on NBC’s ‘American Ninja Warrior.’
“Whenever I go to one of my friends I hadn’t seen so far in the summer or one of my co-workers, one of the first things they say is ‘How was the experience on American Ninja Warrior?’ I was definitely excited to get a text that I was going to be on the episode.”
Behrle had been selected to appear last season, but those plans were cancelled due to COVID-related travel restrictions. But taped in March he went to the Alamo Dome in San Antonio, Texas and recorded an episode which aired June 13. The New Jersey native’s performance there placed him in the top 30 and earned him a semi-final appearance in Los Angeles. That episode aired July 18 from a Universal Studios back lot.
Though he was sad about his fall in the semi-finals after training for that specific course, Behrle is still proud of making it that far on a show he grew up watching, “My goal for my first run was just to get up there, smile, have a good time, just take it all in and have a lot of fun, because at the end of the day, it is a competition, but I do it for fun. So I was like ‘I’m on the big stage. I might as well take it all in.’”
What attracted Behrle to ninja sports was growing up loving challenging competition, and that love for the sport caught on with his dad when Behrle was a teenager, “I was watching the show and there was this guy that came on, and his story was how he built obstacles in his backyard. I jokingly asked my Dad if we could build obstacles like that, and to my surprise still, he said yes, so we built a ton of obstacles in our backyard.”
Behrle’s dad was there in San Antonio to see his son move on to the semifinals, along with his mom, while his brother watched virtually while training for the Air Force. His Bucknell friends and girlfriend also watched virtually. Behrle’s set to finish his last semester at Bucknell this fall as a sociology and economics double-major. He plans to take the semester to spend time with his friends before graduation, but says he’ll still train and apply for the show again in the future.
