The winner of ‘American Ninja Warrior’ is a 20-year-old from South Jersey who wants to grow the game: ‘It’s not just a hobby’

Josiah Pippel’s 20th birthday was extra special, as he became the Season 18 winner of American Ninja Warrior. But he had to wait almost a year to share the news.

Pippel, who’s from Moorestown, smashed his hand down onto the finisher’s button, securing his victory and the $250,000 prize. He was neck and neck with reigning champion Kai Beckstrand until a miscalculation sent Beckstrand into the water for the first time in three years.

“I’ve been waiting 11 months for this,” Pippel said of the episode, which aired Monday. “The kids I coach would ask me every week, ‘Tell us who won’ … so we had a big watch party at the gym, and it’s been a really cool experience, especially with so much time in between. I had a chance to experience it then, and then kind of die down, and now the high is back again. So it was like winning twice.”

Pippel has been competing in ninja since he was 7, when he was introduced to it at a birthday party. He trained for 10 years at Movement Lab in Hainesport, Burlington County. American Ninja Warrior, which was inspired by a Japanese show called Sasuke, debuted in 2009.

“I tried soccer, football, baseball, and I absolutely hated them,” Pippel said. “But since Day 1 with ninja, I fell in love with it.”

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And he’s risen fast within the tight-knit ninja scene. Pippel’s first appearance on screen was in 2020, on Season 2 of American Ninja Warrior Junior, when, at age 13, he reached the semifinals. Two years later, at 15, he became the youngest competitor on the main show and finished eighth.

This time, cheered on from the sidelines by his family and friends — and even other competitors — Pippel propelled himself off revolving pizza slices to finish the course in style.

“I have no plans on slowing down,” said Pippel, a six-time national finalist. “Now that I’ve seen the top, I definitely want to stay here and not just [be] one and done. My biggest goal is to go for a second, defend the title, and possibly even a third with Season 20 being announced as well.”

Despite not leaving the competitive world anytime soon, Pippel is focused on growing his company, Team Ninja Association.

“Our goal really is to make ninja a proper sport,” Pippel said. “We really want to make an opportunity for the athletes in the sport to grow and kind of to take the sport to the next level, where it’s not just a TV show, it’s not just a hobby, it’s not just something we do on the side. It can be your actual livelihood.”

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Team Ninja Association was established in 2024 and hosts competitions at gyms across the country. It recently found a home at Windsor Ninja Academy in Windsor, Conn.

Though he has his eye on a Porsche 911, Pippel is planning on using some of his prize money to pour back into the company and advance ninja.

“I hope to leave a competitive legacy, but also be one of the pioneers of moving the sport forward,” Pippel said. “One of my goals is to try and get collegiate ninja in some form and … give athletes an opportunity to get scholarships for it and go along with the professional route. Give those athletes the opportunity to not have to make a choice between a career and the sport.”

Pippel, who’s currently a coach at The Grit Ninja in Norwalk, Conn., works closely with the next generation.

“I think what motivated me in the past was always like my own success,” Pippel said. “Like, I really wanted to do well for me. But I think, now, my biggest motivator is that next generation, and is the kids I coach.

“I want to be an inspiration to people to go try something new, go try something different because if I had never tried ninja, if I had just stopped when I didn’t enjoy those traditional sports and went, ‘Oh, I guess I’m not athletic,’ I would have never gotten this opportunity.

“Now 13 years after making that decision to try something new and step a little bit out of my comfort zone, I’m now the American Ninja Warrior champion.”