Josiah Pippel is an 19-year-old from New Jersey who was previously on the second season of American Ninja Warrior Junior. He's also the boyfriend of fellow ANW competitior Jojo Grubesic. He's also one of the many to join into the backflip every day challenge started by Ethan Swanson.
American Ninja Warrior Junior 2[]
Josiah first competed on the second season of American Ninja Warrior Junior in 13-14 age division. His qualifying runs were shown in QR EP 8. In the seeding round, he defeated Trey Williamson. Then, in the knockout round he won against ANW Jr's 11-12 3rd place finisher Ella McRitchie to advance to the final showdown. There he won against Abby McGuire and advanced to the quarterfinals.
In the quarterfinals, he lost to the eventual champion of the 13-14 age division and future Power Tower opponent Vance Walker after falling on Sky Hooks (which happened after Vance already cleared the course), ending his season.
American Ninja Warrior 13[]
Josiah first made his appearance in American Ninja Warrior 13. In the second episode of qualifiers, although he missed the Mega Wall, he cleared the course in his rookie debut in fourth place. In the third semifinals episode, he was one of only nine competitors to complete the eighth obstacle, Padlock. He then cleared with the second fastest time and advanced to the Power Tower, where he raced against Vance Walker. He ended up losing the race, but he still advanced to the national finals as a rookie. On Stage One, he finished the course for his third buzzer of the season, with 25.74 seconds left. On Stage Two, it looked like he was gonna hit his fourth buzzer of the season, until he reached the Falling Shelves, where like five other ninjas he failed to get the blind grab on the last shelf, ending his rookie season.
American Ninja Warrior 14[]
Josiah returned for his second season. He first competed in the second qualifying episode, where he once again cleared the course, doing so in 5th place. Additionally, after just missing it last year, he also got up the Mega Wall, winning $10,000.
He later competed in the first semifinals episode. There, he once again had a strong run, linking all of the jumps on the Air Surfer, and making it to the back half of the course again. He once again cleared the course with the second fastest time, once again moving on to the Power Tower, racing against Jay Lewis. The race was very close, but Josiah ended up just barely losing again, but he still advanced to the national finals for the second straight season.
In the national finals, he once again finished Stage One, with 37.99 seconds left, one of the fastest times of the first episode. On Stage Two, he got revenge on the Falling Shelves and hit his fourth buzzer of the season with almost 40 seconds left, moving on to Stage Three. On Stage Three, he had little trouble with the stage and he become the fourth competitor out of five to clear the stage this season. On Stage Four, he ran third and similar to the other competitors who made it to Stage Four, Josiah started strong, but he ended up timing out around the 70 feet mark, ending his amazing sophomore season and he had the third best performance this season.
American Ninja Warrior 15[]
Josiah returned in the fifth qualifying episode. He was trying to get another chance at the Mega Wall, but had issues with Lasso Launch, and though he completed the course, he barely missed his chance to attempt the Mega Wall. Still, he placed second overall with a time of 1:22.45.
His semifinal race against Jamie Rahn was fast-forwarded, but Josiah seemed to be slighty behind at first, but Jamie rushed and failed on Beehive. That gave the win to Josiah, who then sped through the rest of the course to finish with the fastest time. As such, he earned another chance for the Safety Pass going against Noah Meunier. The two were neck-and-neck, up until both shockingly fell on Sideways. After checking the tape, it was revealed Josiah lost the race, missing out on the Safety Pass for the third straight season.
His run on Stage One was digested, but he stumbled on the Dipping Birds, but was nonetheless able to hit his third buzzer of the season, with 19.85 seconds left. On Stage Two, as the #9 seed, he raced the #16 seed, Austin Gray. Unfortunately for Josiah, he had an unexpected fall on the Epic Air Surfer, despite clearing it two years ago. Meanwhile, Austin barely completed the obstacle and got the win. He time to the obstacle was good enough for him to complete in the runoff race for the top-four non winners, racing against Kyle Soderman. There, he was once again in the lead, but he unfortunately once again failed on the Epic Air Surfer while Kyle cleared the obstacle, ending Josiah's season for good.
American Ninja Warrior 16[]
Josiah returned for his fourth season in the sixth qualifier. His run was digested, but he blazed through the course, finishing it with the fastest time of the night with 1:02.15. His fast time earned him a chance at the Mega Wall. However, he wasn't able to complete it, just barely missing it with his right hand.
Josiah raced Guang Cui in the second round of the semifinals. The race was digested, but Josiah kept the lead for the entire race, and ultimately completed the course, while his opponent failed the Spin Hopper. Josiah placed 6th overall, which meant that he didn't race for the Safety Pass for the first time in his career, but he still advanced to the national finals once again.
At the national finals, his Stage One run was once again digested, but he once cleared the course, this time doing so with the third fastest time. He later raced against Cam Baumgartner on Stage Two. Josiah was able to get revenge on the Epic Air Surfer and he finished the course before Cam did, and he advanced back to Stage Three. On Stage Three, he spent over a minute on Stalactites, and although he cleared that and the following two obstacles, Josiah later failed on the new Pizza Party, ending his season, for the first time on Stage Three.
Josiah is set to compete in American Ninja Warrior 17.
Trivia[]
- He is one of twelve Americans to finish Third Stage in any SASUKE format.
- He keeps five reptiles in his room, and he even brought his bearded dragon up to the commentary box during his qualifier run in American Ninja Warrior 13.
- He is the first ninja to race for the Safety Pass three times and fail all three times, with the only time he missed racing for it was during the semifinals of American Ninja Warrior 16.
- He and Vance Walker are the first two to race on the Power Tower and then on the semifinals course for the Safety Pass.
Results[]
| ANW | # | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | Failed Falling Shelves (Stage Two) | ||
| 14 | Failed Rope Climb (Stage Four) | Time Out. | |
| 15 | Failed Epic Air Surfer (Stage Two) | ||
| 16 | Failed Pizza Party (Stage Three) |