Ethan Bartnicki is a Ninja Warrior athlete and current MMA fighter from Marietta, Georgia.
American Ninja Warrior Junior[]
He first competed on American Ninja Warrior Junior in the 13-14 age division. His qualifying runs were shown in Episode 8. In the seeding round, he defeated Bryton Myler to advance to the knockout round in the winners' seed. There, he defeated Anella Bolster and advanced to the final showdown. He then outraced Lauren Hotchkiss to the buzzer and advanced to the semifinals.
In the semifinals, he faced Jeramiah Boyd. However, he received his first loss, as Jeramiah just outraced him to the buzzer, ending his season.
American Ninja Warrior 14[]
He competed as a rookie during the first qualifying episode. His run was digested, but it was shown that he had a good save on the nunchuck portion of the Carnival and later cleared the course in his rookie debut. He placed 10th overall. Ethan later competed in the fourth semifinal episode. There he had another strong run, clearing the first eight obstacles with ease. Then at Split Decision he chose to do Flipped Around and he ended up falling there after he spent a while trying to lock in the first board. Nevertheless, he placed 9th overall, advancing him to the national finals.
In the national finals, Ethan completed Stage One with 10.99 seconds left. His Stage Two run was digested, but he finished the stage and advanced to Stage Three. His Stage Three run was also digested, but he failed on the fifth obstacle, going out on Pipe Dream, ending his great rookie season.
American Ninja Warrior 15[]
Ethan returned after a breakout rookie season to compete in the final qualifying episode. His run was digested, but he was hoping to finish in under 1:20 and get a shot at the Mega Wall. Unfortunately, he was too slow to attempt it, finishing less than a second away from the 1:20 mark, but he still cleared with the third fastest time. He later competed in the last semifinals episode. His race against DC Banks was digested, but after DC failed Sideways, Ethan then hit his first buzzer on a semifinals course and made it back to the national finals.
In Vegas, Ethan completed Stage One with 12.12 seconds left. In Stage Two, he raced his training partner Vance Walker. Both fell on Falling Shelves, but Ethan got there first and won. On Stage Three, he got revenge on Pipe Dream, and later completed the course. On Stage Four, he started off strong, but unfortunately timed out around 65 feet, ending his amazing sophomore season. He had the eighth best performance of the season.
Hiatus from Ninja[]
Ethan wasn’t chosen to compete in American Ninja Warrior 16. It has been rumored after ANW 16 that he has retired from Ninja. Ethan would later confirm his career aspirations in an Instagram story.[1] He is currently pursuing a career in MMA, and has decided to step away from Ninja to focus more on MMA. He also cited that ANW became less fun for him after a while, and expressed grateful satisfaction with how things ended with season 15.[2]
While he did not explicitly state that he was permanently retired from ANW, as there is a chance he may return after a while, it can be implied that he is at least taking a long hiatus away from Ninja to focus on other career aspirations.
Trivia[]
- Ethan is the eighth rookie to complete Stage Two in American Ninja Warrior history.
- He's also the third teen rookie to do so, after both Vance Walker and Kaden Lebsack in American Ninja Warrior 13.
- Ethan used to go by his rapper name "Lil Dolla" on American Ninja Warrior Junior.
- He, Vance Walker, and Kyle Soderman are the first three ninjas to have completed and failed the Vegas version of Falling Shelves.
- Alongside Hans Hertz and Josh Levin (who technically retired at the end of the season), he is one of the few ninjas in American Ninja Warrior history to attempt Stage Four and then not get the call for the next season.
- His Stage Three run during American Ninja Warrior 14 was the only run that was digested during the broadcast.
American Ninja Warrior Results[]
| ANW | # | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | Failed Pipe Dream (Stage Three) | Digest. | |
| 15 | Failed Rope Climb (Stage Four) | Timed out but finished with 46.40 seconds. Failed Falling Shelves in Stage Two but was allowed to advance due to the change in format. |
References[]
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fdid-ethan-barnicki-retire-v0-pb1811ntfrbf1.jpeg%3Fwidth%3D1170%26format%3Dpjpg%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D73f0a96070d6e09f8068b84b8812eaf06452fef9
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fdid-ethan-barnicki-retire-v0-is210p9hcvbf1.jpeg%3Fwidth%3D1170%26format%3Dpjpg%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D8f9e8c9d004c9bfa0f5ddc3400ff2cf580467d7f