Leif Sundberg

Leif Sundberg is a Medical Technologist from Lakeville, Minnesota. He is known as the Swedish Ninja for his Swedish heritage, who is well known for being capable of several Salmon Ladder tricks, including jumping the entire set of rings, doing it with one hand, and doing backflipped transitions.

American Ninja Warrior 8
Leif first competed in Indianapolis in American Ninja Warrior 8. In qualifying, his run was digested, but it was shown that he failed the Disc Runner after his feet splashed the water just inches away from the dismount platform, not making it to the city finals.

He did not compete on American Ninja Warrior 9 but did test in Kansas City. He was also seen on the sidelines supporting Sarah Schoback in the same city.

American Ninja Warrior 10
He returned for American Ninja Warrior 10 in Minneapolis. His run in qualifying was not shown, but he completed the qualifying course with the 3rd fastest time. Despite his amazing qualifying run, he had an early exit on the Salmon Ladder, the very obstacle he is known for. It was shown that he attempted to jump the entire set of five rungs, only to land the bar crooked and cause it to slide off when he trying to correct it. He placed 21st overall and did not move on to the National Finals.

American Ninja Warrior 11
He returned for American Ninja Warrior 11 in Seattle/Tacoma. In qualifying, he blazed through the course and cleared in an amazingly fast 58.75 seconds, becoming the first competitor since Lorin Ball in American Ninja Warrior 7 to clear a course in less than a minute. He placed 1st, moving on to the Power Tower where he faced Sean Bryan. However, Sean seemed to have a much faster pace than him throughout the race, and eventually hit the buzzer well before he sid.

Despite his amazing performance in the qualifiers, he once again failed to move on to Vegas, as he failed the Lightning Bolts, placing 15th overall.

American Ninja Warrior 13
After taking American Ninja Warrior 12 off, he returned for American Ninja Warrior 13 in the last qualifying episode. It is also revealed he has a new son born, named Linus. He was the first runner in that episode, and he once again started off quick through the first 2 obstacles. But then he ran into trouble on the Log Runner and he managed to save himself from falling on the last log. Unfortunately, it took him about 1 minute to do so and when he failed later on the fifth obstacle Sideways, his time to that point was not fast enough to make the top 30. Therefore, this meant that he didn't qualify for the semifinals for the first time since American Ninja Warrior 8.

Trivia

 * During a post-run interview in the Minneapolis finals, Sundberg mentioned that his risky move on the Salmon Ladder was called the "Wilczewski Whip". This move was inspired by Chris Wilczewski, as in Team Ninja Warrior, he used that move in the Lab Rats vs. Iron Grip Relay Showdown.
 * He is not to be confused with another Leif Sundberg, an actor who was born in 1938 and is also Swedish.