American Ninja Warrior season 17 is here, and it’s packed with both veterans and new competitors. One of the returning athletes is Daniel Gil, who is returning for his 10th Ninja. This time, he comes into the competition as a dad, and he shared what it means to him to have his daughter, Isla Rose, in the audience watching him.
As well as raising his daughter, Gil also spends time traveling around the world for speaking gigs to offer encouragement and advice on overcoming obstacles in life. In our exclusive interview about the new season, we asked him what his message this year is as he competes, as well as who he views as his biggest competition after the first qualifier round.
Daniel Gil shares his love for American Ninja Warrior
GeekSided: I couldn’t wait for people to see you compete again in American Ninja Warrior. What’s it like coming back for your, is it the ninth or tenth time now?
Daniel Gil: My 10th time! It’s been a decade of my life given to this competition all the way back to American Ninja Warrior season 7 to now season 17, and I got my 30th buzzer!
It’s a bummer I didn’t get the Mega Wall. But gosh, doing that in the desert, the sand was really tough, but I was able to hit my 30th buzzer. I’m moving on in the competition, and it’s just another year for me. I love Ninja; I love the sport; I love the community; and I love the platform that this show has given me to encourage and inspire all the viewers that are watching me and all the other athletes each season. It’s a dream come true for me.
GS: I’ve got to ask with all the travel that you do, how do you find time to train?
DG: Anywhere and everywhere that I can! Thankfully, with all the trips that I’m on right now, there are ways to train that translate to Ninja. As long as I’ve got a pull-up bar, some grip trainers, and a place that I can run to do my sprint intervals, all of that regular conditioning translates directly to the support of Ninja. Maybe if I can find a local climbing gym to get a good pump to continue building up on my forearm endurance.
All of that goes directly into the next time I’m at a Ninja gym training on obstacles. I can get stronger while I travel, and it just allows me to do what I love, but also do what I’m passionate about. I get to have a career as a traveling speaker and Ninja coach, while also being a full-time athlete who travels and does competitions year-round, so it’s a joy. I live a very adventurous, unique life, and I bring my family along with me everywhere I go.
GS: I love that you get to do that. Seeing Isla Rose on the rings was just adorable.
DG: Oh, she’s a monkey. She’s just like her daddy in that sense, and you better believe once she can start climbing on things, she’s gonna get every opportunity to be a Ninja just like her pops.
GS: She’s watching this for the first time, and while she won’t remember it, you will. What’s that like knowing she’s watching you get that 30th buzzer?
DG: Oh man, so every year I’ve got my beautiful wife Abby there. I usually have my mom and other family members who come out and watch me compete. But to look down on the sidelines like I did this year and see my baby girl smiling from ear to ear, yelling and cheering — she’s thinking everyone’s there for her — but she’s just watching Daddy climb and swing on things like he does back home. It just fills me with such joy.
And knowing that, win or lose, I can take great pride and joy that I get to be a role model for her on the good days and the bad days. Show her what it looks like to win. Show her what it looks like to lose. That's when you’re with the right people doing what you love, then you don’t really lose. You just learn and grow from every experience, and any mistakes that you make.
So, I’m just so proud to have my family with me this season on the show.
GS: That’s the thing; there’s always a chance of failure. What do you take from the bad moments you’ve had?
DG: There have been bad moments, and it’s inevitable in the sport of Ninja. When you show up to compete, you have no idea exactly which obstacles you’re going to have on the course. You don’t get to practice them. You’ll get one demonstration by one of their professional testers, then you go to the holding area, and next thing you know, you’re standing in front of the starting platform with the lights, the cameras, the audiences, and the 3-2-1-go.
With failure being so inevitable at some point or another, I remind myself that the greatest athletes, even the greatest entrepreneurs and businessmen, and women on the planet, have lost or failed more times than most people have ever even tried. When I hear that, it gives me great comfort knowing that if something goes wrong or doesn’t go as I desire to or I lose, this does not have to define me.
I’m going to get up; I’m going to learn from it; I’m going to grow from it. I’m not going to make the same mistakes, whether it’s getting stronger, going faster, learning a certain technique, or learning a certain obstacle. I’m not going to repeat this. I’m going to grow from it with that type of mindset.
GS: I always say that I don’t like saying I regret something, because it means I’ve not learned from it.
DG: That’s so true!
GS: There are a lot of younger contestants this year. What’s it like going up against them?
DG: Man, they keep me on my toes. I went from being the youngest competitor when I started back in 2015 at 21-years-old, which was the requirement at the time. Now, I’m more than twice the age of these teenagers. Thankfully, I’m still within the window of high-level athletes, and I feel stronger and faster than I ever have.
I’ve got a lot of wisdom and just experience from all these years on the show, so there are pros and cons. As fast and as strong as these guys are, I’m just gonna have to push to be my very best. In a sport like this, especially when we get to the finals and some of the head-to-head races, these athletes are going to have to make a split-second decision that will either make or break their run, because it’s no longer going to be about ‘can you finish the course?’ It’s gonna be about ‘can you finish the course faster than your opponent, who’s also a high-level, highly skilled athlete?’
GS: I thought you were going to have the fastest run time, and then one person beat you. What was it like to see someone just clinch it?
DG: It was bittersweet. With the qualifiers, you just have to move on. In the qualifiers, you’re thinking about the semis, the national finals, and so I never want to make a mistake and risk the whole rest of the season. So, I always dial back a little bit, and I think most athletes do.
I still want to go fast; I still want a good time; I want that top three, that podium spot, so not getting it in the qualifiers is a disappointment but also, I understood that I wasn’t trying to go all out that early on with a sport like Ninja when there are multiple rounds. You only really want to go as hard as necessary to move on. I knew that in the back of my mind that it was still a time that could be beaten.
Now, as we get further down in the season, that's where you are really going all out, raising the dial, and just seeing what it is you’re truly made of. I think we’re gonna see that out of myself and out of other athletes this season.
GS: Is there anyone from this first round that you’ve felt is your greatest competition?
DG: Oh gosh, I mean, there were so many talented athletes. There are some rookies, and obviously, there are some veterans; a lot of my Texas friends were competing alongside me. I still haven’t quite seen just how they edited it, and who is going to be featured, or what is getting shown.
It’s the same thing with actors when they film movies. They know the scenes they took, but what made it to the final cut? So, I’m gonna go back and check out to see how it all played out, but I think my region had a lot of the veterans that have been in the sport for years and years, as well as some new rookies. There’s some strong competition this season.
GS: What’s the overall message you want to deliver to people watching your 10th year?
DG: My message is that every single one of us will face obstacles at some point in our lives. You get to watch me and my friends compete on the physical obstacles that are on American Ninja Warrior, the world’s toughest obstacle course. But each and every one of us in our own lives will face obstacles, whether it’s sometimes the emotional obstacles, the roller coasters that we face in that regard, or other times it’s the mental obstacles like fear, anxiety, even depression. Those can be obstacles that try to knock us down, and we have to rise again and get back up, learn, and grow from the mistake.
I think every single one of us should be encouraged and realize that obstacles take many shapes, many forms in this life, but we don’t have to let them define us or dictate our forward progress. I tell my students, and whenever I speak at schools or summer camps, that we can be like bouncy balls instead of eggs. Eggs fall, bouncy falls fall, eggs crack and stay broken on the ground, and that’s how we feel sometimes, but bouncy calls hit the ground with impact that still hurts, but they bounce back up.
We can grieve, and we can have those emotions, but don’t let them keep you down. Don’t let whatever obstacle you’re facing derail your life. We can learn; we can grow; we can find community, like what I have through American Ninja Warrior with my friends from across the globe. We were never meant to live this life by ourselves. We need people and community, so let that be my message for you guys.
GS: I love the bouncy ball metaphor.
DG: I’ve had to remind myself of that quite often because I’ve had my low days. I’ve gotta remind myself I’m not staying here. This isn’t where I’m called to. I’m called to do higher things, to better and bigger things. Human beings are amazing. We’re amazing creatures with all that we’ve been able to do in life, so don’t stay down.
Take a look at Daniel's run again:
American Ninja Warrior airs on Mondays at 8/7c on NBC and streams the following day on Peacock.