Colorado University Athletics
Pletcher To Compete On American Ninja Warrior On NBC Monday
June 20, 2016 | Skiing
BOULDER – Former NCAA Nordic ski champion Reid Pletcher, who helped Colorado to the 2011 NCAA team title, will compete on NBC's American Ninja Warrior, which debuted Wednesday night.
Pletcher will appear on the June 20 episode that took place in Oklahoma City. He is one of 400 applicants selected to the show that had more than 3,000 hopefuls submit applications.
“I can't tell you exactly what's going to happen,” Pletcher said. “But I can definitely say that it will be worth watching, for better or worse.”
Should Pletcher advance past the June 20 qualifier, he would advance into the Oklahoma City finals competition, which will air in mid-July. Should he qualify out of OKC he would move onto the finals in Las Vegas, with Stage 1 scheduled to air in mid-August. The winner of the competition will collect $1 million and the title of Ninja Rookie Champion.
Pletcher did have a setback during his training. He submitted his application for the show last November, and spent November and December training before he broke his hand playing soccer. He hadn't heard anything from show officials and assumed he didn't make the cut. But on the day he had his cast removed, he received word that he'd been accepted for the Oklahoma City qualifier, leaving him just two weeks to train.
Pletcher's life has been nothing short of a roller coaster since joining the CU team in 2009, and it's no doubt he used his hand injury as motivation for ANW. He came to Colorado not only because of the ski team, but also because of CU's club cycling team, which is also one of the top programs in the country. He had hopes of competing in the Olympics either as a cyclist or Nordic skier.
As a junior, he helped the Buffs win the NCAA Skiing Championship, a season dedicated to Spencer Nelson, a teammate who died in a hiking accident in August just before the start of his sophomore season. Pletcher was an integral part in the Buffs' quest to win the title in Spencer's memory. He won the individual NCAA Championship in the classic race, becoming one of the few Americans in NCAA history to have won the race.
Two months later, Pletcher had just finished the last final exam of his junior year when he was severely injured in a hiking/climbing accident on May 26, 2011. He fell approximately 30 feet, fracturing his skull in two places and suffering multiple hemorrhages. Of the more than 3,000 routes to rock climb in Boulder Canyon, he was on one of the few that was next to the road, which allowed the ambulance and Flight for Life helicopter to reach him relatively quickly.
As a result of the fall, Pletcher lost his sense of smell, suffered from severe dizzy spells and had to relearn a significant portion of the English language. He was told he would be in the hospital for a minimum of six months.
Miraculously, he was back training in two months and joined the Buffs for his senior season around the time his doctors said he may be leaving the hospital. He skied to four top-10 finishes in his first five races before suffering some side effects from the fall.
He then graduated in December 2012 and had his sights set on the Sochi Olympics. But the long-term effects of his accident were still prevalent, and just four days before the 2013 U.S. Cross Country National Championships, he walked away from the sport, suffering from depressive disorders.
He then unexpectedly received a call from his hometown club team in Sun Valley. The club had a visually impaired skier, Jake Adicoff, who needed a guide in hopes of competing for the U.S. Paralympic team in Sochi.
Reluctant at first, Pletcher then began to understand the impact he could have on both Adicoff and the Paralympic movement. He accepted the challenge and ended up in Sochi as part of Team USA.
That experience reignited his spark for competition. He wanted to compete again, but he also wanted to try a new sport, so he focused his energy on speed skating. He moved to Salt Lake City and began training full time at the Utah Olympic Oval.
While there is a correlation between Nordic skiing and speed skating, Pletcher had no experience in the sport. He found his niche in long track skating. Speed skating is a sport where if you hit a time, you're on a team, and he had a goal of hitting the “A” times needed to become part of the team. Within the first three months, he was edging ever closer to those top times.
But opportunity then came calling to Pletcher in the form of another love of his, river rafting. He was offered the opportunity to lead trips on the 104-mile Middle Fork section of Idaho's Salmon River and that pulled him away from his speed skating dream, which he defines as “postponed.”
He moved back to Idaho and began taking classes at Boise State. When the winter rolled around, he realized that for the first time in a long time, his regimen wouldn't include full-time training or racing. That's when he found the application for American Ninja Warrior.
Regardless of the outcome, which will remain a secret until NBC airs the episode, it's been right up Pletcher's alley.
“It's going to be an adventure,” he told FasterSkier. “It already is.”
