World Ninja League
Sporting organization
The World Ninja League (WNL), formerly National Ninja League, is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to growing ninja-style obstacle course racing as a sport. In contrast to American Ninja Warrior, the WNL provides multiple competitions each season for athletes as young as 6 years old under a unified rule set.
History
The World Ninja League was created by Chris and Brian Wilczewski, competitors on American Ninja Warrior and owners of the Movement Laboratory training facility, in the fall of 2015 as a way for competitors and fans of the show to have a unified off-season league between taping seasons. The first season had 15 qualifying events at 12 affiliate facilities and culminated in a World Championship at the Movement Laboratory in Hainesport, New Jersey in February 2016.
Season 2 saw the introduction of three youth divisions for athletes as young as 6 years old. The first championships for youth athletes were held at the Gymnastics Academy of Fairfield (Connecticut) for the Kids and Preteens divisions and iCore Fitness in West Chester, PA for the Teen division. Due to the popularity of ninja among youth athletes, two additional divisions - Mature Kids and Young Adults - were added the following season. Youth athletes now account for over 70% of the league's participation.
The league has rapidly expanded from 12 affiliate facilities in Season 1 to over 80 affiliate facilities in Season 5 in 27 states and 6 countries. The league also has partnerships with the Ninja Challenge League in Australia, French Ninja League, and Barbados Ninja Throwdown.
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This entry incorporates text from “World Ninja League” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.