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JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. - Tech. Sgt. Justin B.
Gielski may be the next American Ninja Warrior.
Problem is,
he can't tell you. At least, not yet.
In June 2015, the New
Jersey Air National Guard Airman competed in Las Vegas in the finals
of the popular television show that requires strength, agility,
endurance and more than a little grit. He's not allowed to talk
about his performance until the show airs sometime before the end of
the month.
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Tech. Sgt. Justin B. Gielski swings on a set of bars he built in the backyard of his home in Medford, N.J., as he trains to compete on the TV show “American Ninja Warrior” Aug. 21, 2015. Gielski placed fifth in the all-military city final on the TV show and advanced to the finals in Las Vegas. Gielski is a loadmaster with the 150th Special Operations Squadron, 108th Wing, New Jersey Air National Guard, located at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Mark C. Olsen)
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To get to the finals, Gielski, a loadmaster with the
150th Special Operations Squadron of the 108th Wing, took
part in an all-military preliminary competition and placed
fifth. His performance in that competition was aired on the
Aug. 17, 2015 episode. In all, 30 military members competed
and the top 15 were invited to the finals.
“I think
it reflects well on the New Jersey Guard and the Air Force
because there are not that many Air Force or Guard members
that made it through to this level,” Gielski said.
Gielski also gives credit to the
creators of "American Ninja Warrior" – for creating a
diabolically difficult obstacle course.
“Lot of
bizarre obstacles, the people who engineer these things have
to be partially insane, but they're fun, they definitely
test your abilities,” he said.
For Gielski, this is
his first season with "American Ninja Warrior" but his
interest started long before the American version of the
show came out.
“I used to watch Japanese version of
Ninja Warrior when I was younger and I thought to myself
this looks really fun, I think I could do this,” said
Gielski. “I found a parkour gym in Cherry Hill ... I actually
really enjoyed it and I had a lot of fun and kinda saw the
potential that I could be good at it.”
It is not an
easy road; the training is intensive – an hour during lunch
and then another one to three hours in the evening.
“I have definitely gotten a lot of support from the Wing in
this adventure, which I thought has been really cool; it's
been neat that they've allowed me to do this,” said Gielski.
“I'm glad I could represent them well in return for their
sacrifices to help me with my dreams.”
There was also
an unforeseen benefit from preparing for the competition,
Gielski's family got interested in working out.
“My
kids kind of started taking an interest in it as well as
they saw me doing it, so we started building some things in
our backyard like bar setups and stuff and they really love
it,” said Gielski. “We just have a blast and I've noticed it
has actually brought our family a lot closer together.”
“Every day is different, we're not just working out,
we're always striving to meet a new goal, to accomplish some
new flip, hang longer, swing farther, things like that. We
get really excited when someone in the family does something
new that's awesome; we take a lot of videos and post a lot
of video.”
One of the show's hash tags for Gielski is
#MagicFingers.
“We're a Seahawks family and when the
Seahawks are close to the end zone, we'll send magic to them
[visualize hands extended and fingers wiggling toward the
television screen] and we try to will them to score,' said
Gielski. “So it just became something that we do. My son is
having a hard time with this obstacle, [we'll say] ‘you're
really close, let's give him some magic' and we give him
magic and it kind of motivates you to do well.”
“I
got up there the first night [of the show] and I saw my kids
there [and I said] ‘alright kids give me magic, it's going
to be tough',” said Gielski. “So it became a thing I talked
about [on the show] and they gave me the hash tag
#MagicFingers.”
“I hear stories of ‘hey, my kids were
giving you magic through the TV rooting you on' and it's
pretty cool to hear that. I'm glad our family could share
something like that.”
When asked about the Vegas
episodes, Gielski could say only one thing.
“It's
going to be exciting.
By U.S. Air National Guard Master Sgt. Mark C. Olsen
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2015
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