Lakeville's 'American Ninja Warrior' competitor eyed the $1M prize. Here's what happened.
NEW BEDFORD — Despite being seconds away from winning the $1 million grand prize on "American Ninja Warrior," Lakeville's Noah Meunier is already training hard for another shot at the gold.
Meunier, alongside his friends and family, watched the season finale at Play Arcade during a private party on Monday. The night was also a party for Meunier's 18th birthday.
"It was very fun going out and getting to run all the courses because I put so much time into training and seeing my skills pay off on the big stage was really fun," Meunier said.
After four years trying to make in on the show, the Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School senior made it to finals this year.
"You see the obstacles from the side all the time on the show. And it's a little weird the first time you're on the course and you're seeing them head on," Meunier said. "But it feels kind of like what we've been doing back in the gym, and it was kind of a comfortable experience once you get going."
ANW host Matt Iseman referred to Meunier as Superman still wearing Clark Kent's glasses and said he was the "biggest surprise of the season."
Training hard for ANW in Fall River
Meunier has been training with the ninja team at Vitality Obstacle Fitness in Fall River since he was a kid. He recently was hired to teach classes at the gym.
According to a previous Standard-Times interview, Meunier tried a lot of different sports growing up, and basketball was his favorite — until he saw his first Ninja competition.
"There's a bunch of moms here that helped raise him and all those boys over there," said his mother, Terri Meunier. "All the moms would constantly be saying 'no, get down' every time they had him for a play date, because he was climbing, jumping over park benches, everything. So they just knew."
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His girlfriend, Addy Herman of Pembroke, is also an ANW competitor. They met at Vitality Obstacle Fitness four years ago. Herman was eliminated earlier in this season's ANW competition. They both work together to motivate each other to be as good as possible.
"It's really cool to be able to do the thing that I love most," Herman said. "I have such a passion for it and to be able to share that with other people is fun."
Competing for the American Ninja Warrior grand prize
Not every season does someone take home the million dollar grand prize, in fact only two competitors in the 15 seasons have won. On the pre-recorded episode that aired Monday, Meunier did not finish ANW's final 75-foot rope climb stage within 30 seconds — coming in at 32 seconds.
Instead, contestant Vance Walker won the grand prize at 26.75 seconds.
"It was a little saddening in my rookie year, but I was so proud of myself," Meunier said. "I'm going to just keep training for stage four."
He said he learned all about perseverance and hard work from his dad, who had been paralyzed from the chest down and told he might never walk again after an injury while playing hockey at 16.
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"No word I can give you about how excited I am for Noah," Dennis Meunier said. "You know how every parent wants their child to do better in life? I'm like, check. That's done."
Meunier said his son is amazing 24 hours a day with his school work, involvement in church, volunteering and teaching kids at the gym.
"I can't even say how proud I am. And it's like no words to describe it ... I'm just so happy for him," Meunier added.
Celebrating together at Play Arcade
Terri Meunier said she wanted to host Noah Meunier's birthday as well as watching the final of ANW at an arcade and found Play online.
"I wanted people to have something to do during n the commercials, and this is a really fun place for everyone," she said Monday, adding that she kept the ending a secret from friends and family.
"His gym friends let the whole cat out of the bag and I wasn't very happy about it. I didn't want to know because I love watching it on TV. So I'm pretending I don't know."
With at least 50 people in attendance, all three rooms of the arcade cheered on Noah Meunier during the two-hour finale.
What was it like to compete on American Ninja Warrior?
"It [competing in Vegas] definitely comes right back to you. It is something you're not going to forget. It's something I will remember for a while especially being on national television. So it was a great experience," Meunier said.
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As for advice to aspiring American Ninja Warriors who want to follow in his footsteps, Meunier's said to start doing pull-ups and if you can get on some obstacles, progression will help. He also said the American Ninja Warrior community is very welcoming and willing to help everyone so to seek them out near you.
"Ninja community is the most welcoming and awesome community. I'm happy to be part of it," he said.
Standard-Times staff writer Seth Chitwood can be reached at schitwood@s-t.com. Follow him on twitter: @ChitwoodReports.Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Standard-Times today.
This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Lakeville's Noah Meunier competes in 'American Ninja Warrior' finals
