Dan Champagne

Dan Champagne is a financial planner from West Haven, Connecticut. He is best known for helping fellow training partner and friend Julius Ferguson find a home.

Dan first competed on season 13 of ANW, which at the time was his buddy's fifth season competing.

American Ninja Warrior 13
Dan was originally supposed to compete in Washington D.C. for his rookie year in ANW 12. However, he was unable to do so due to the pandemic postponing the season. Likely to make up for this, he competed in ANW 13 instead.

Dan competed on the second round of qualifying, running after his friend Julius Ferguson ran the course. Being one of the bigger competitors, he had to work a lot bit more on some of the obstacles, such as Weight For It. Despite this, he managed to put a great performance in qualifying, being the first competitor that night to finish V Formation (which took Julius earlier). He was the first competitor to skip the third cradle on the descent, making the longer jump. Though he stumbled on his first attempt, he managed to scale the regular Warped Wall on his second try, being the first finisher of the night. After hitting the buzzer, Akbar was shown praising Dan for his efforts, telling him that "good things happen to good people." He placed 7th overall, being the slowest out of the seven finishers that night.

Dan later competed in the second semifinals episode. He run was digested, but it was shown that he was one of the few competitors who made it past the eighth obstacle, Padlock. He later failed Inverter at Split Decision, being the only competitor that round who did so. He placed 6th overall and moved on to the National Finals in his rookie season.