A three-time Olympic gymnastics medallist showed his skills on Ninja Warrior making an incredible recovery after slipping on the first obstacle.
I’m sure Danell Leyva trained for years to become the gymnast he is today and while winning multiple Olympic medals is very impressive I think this should be the proudest moment of his career.
Other people have won medals but no one has ever made a save like this before:
The 27-year-old was attempting the course at the American Ninja Warrior finals in Las Vegas and he looked determined and focused before he set off.
He appeared to be coming up with a mental plan of how to tackle the obstacle, which was made up of four boards balanced on wobbly springs, as he seemed to use his hands to act out the steps he was going to take.
Unfortunately, things didn’t quite go to plan. The announcer could be heard saying the contestant needed to hit the centre of each board in order to stay balanced and while Leyva got off to a good start he fell short on the second board, which sent him flying forward into the third.
Layva bounced on to the fourth board and landed face first before toppling to the side and it looked like his time was up just seconds after it began but incredibly he managed to cling on and avoid the water below.
The gymnast then put on a great display of strength as he swung his legs up over his head and managed to pull himself back on to the board, causing the crowd to erupt into cheers.
Leyva successfully got back to his feet and completed the obstacle, with a face which suggested the incredible accomplishment was actually no big deal.
The clip was shared on the Ninja Warrior Twitter account, where they replayed the footage in slow motion with some inspirational background music to emphasise the epic scene.
They are some 🔥🔥🔥🔥skills. Amazing @DanellJLeyva 💪🏼
— Emma Bailey 🤸🏼♀️ (@MoominWhisky) August 23, 2019
It doesn’t show whether Leyva went on to have any other near-misses but fans will be able to watch the whole event when the Las Vegas Finals episodes begin to air on Monday (August 26).
After the video was shared online, the 27-year-old tweeted Marvel to see if his impressive display would be enough to win him the role of supervillian Kraven.
He wrote:
Hey @Marvel did you see my save on @ninjawarrior? Almost as if…. I could be….. Kraven
Hey @Marvel did you see my save on @ninjawarrior ? Almost as if…. I could be….. Kraven 😏😏😏
— Danell Johan Leyva (@DanellJLeyva) August 23, 2019
Leyva won the all-around bronze at the 2012 London Games and won silver medals for the parallel bars and high bar during the 2016 Rio games. He retired after the last Olympics but if his save in Ninja Warrior is anything to go by then he’s certainly not lost any of his skill!
Incredible.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.