American Ninja Warrior contestant is also a math whiz
By his own reckoning, Nicki Asirvadam has always been something of a ninja.
Climbing rocks was a hobby he started at an early age. He enjoyed doing acrobatic stunts and found he had a natural aptitude for them. After seeing the TV show American Ninja Warrior (ANW) when he was a kid, it quickly became his favorite. ANW is a sports reality program where contestants try to complete a series of challenging obstacles within a set time limit and strive to advance to the next rounds, culminating each season in the national finals.
ANW involves lots of climbing and jumping and requires tremendous agility, balance, and upper body strength. Any competitor who wins all four stages at the national finals in Las Vegas earns $1 million.
Asirvadam, a junior majoring in mathematics at The University of Texas at Arlington, dreamed for years of competing on the show and started working out at some of the various “Ninja Warrior” gyms around the Dallas area while still in high school. He also participated in Ninja Warrior competitions around Texas to gain experience and get ready to try out for ANW.
While doing so he met Karsten Williams, an eight-time competitor on ANW who has advanced to the national finals six times and is a personal trainer in the Metroplex. Asirvadam began training with Williams and noticed a big improvement in his performance. Another ANW veteran, Jonathan Bange, who has twice appeared on the program, has also given valuable guidance and encouragement to Asirvadam.
Last year Asirvadam achieved his goal when he was selected for the ANW competition. He didn’t make it past the preliminary round but came back and qualified again this year. He advanced to the semifinals in Los Angeles and was very close to securing a spot in the national finals — only a fall on the balance obstacle prevented him from advancing. He plans to continue competing with the ultimate goal of becoming an ANW champion.
“This is more of a lifestyle than a hobby and it brings me so much joy,” he said. “It’s like an escape if I’m stressed out.”
Asirvadam believes that having a good knowledge of mathematics is a plus when it comes to executing the various strenuous physical moves necessary to maneuver around the course that competitors must navigate on ANW.
“I do use some math during workouts when I’m on an obstacle because a lot of it is about angles,” he said. “You have to know which way to kick when you’re jumping for it to take you the right way.”
Asirvadam has enjoyed mathematics since his earliest school days. While some students might dread trying to work through a complex formula, he considers it a fun challenge.
“I’ve always liked math and I’ve been really good at it my whole life,” he said. “I wasn’t really that good at English or history, but math is something I’ve always liked a lot.”
One of his favorite classes to date was a geometry course taught by Theresa Jorgensen, UTA associate professor of mathematics.
“That was a super fun class,” he said. “It felt like we were having fun the whole time, but I also learned a lot. Dr. Jorgensen is the nicest person ever.”
Last spring, he signed up to be a tutor in the Department of Mathematics’ Learning Resource Center. He helps students with their calculus and differential equations homework and enjoys helping math make sense for others.
“We call him the Math Ninja,” said Shannon Banda, associate professor of instruction in mathematics and former director of the Learning Resource Center. “He’s a fantastic young man, skilled athletically and talented mathematically. He also has such a pleasant demeanor — always smiling and wanting to help. We are very lucky to have him on our staff and in our department.”
Asirvadam is enjoying his time at UTA. When he’s not in class, tutoring math students, or training in the gym, he can be found participating as a member of the rock-climbing club team, and he’s also a member of the spirit group which cheers on UTA teams at volleyball and basketball games.
Beside ANW, something else that Asirvadam loves is watching football. Asirvadam was born in Austria, but his family moved to Texas when he was a small child. His father quickly became an American football fan, and the Dallas Cowboys became his favorite team. Although not a football fan at first, Asirvadam was won over by his dad’s enthusiasm for the game. But, although he lives in close proximity to the Cowboys, the New York Giants became his favorite team, much to his dad’s chagrin.
“Every season since 2012, my dad takes me to the Cowboys-Giants game at AT&T Stadium,” he said. “I think the Giants have only won two of the games, but it’s still fun. It’s really fun when the Cowboys lose and all the fans are completely silent after the game.”
During his senior year at Global High School, a STEM academy in Waxahachie, Asirvadam began thinking about possible careers after college and realized he could merge his love for math with his love for football. All NFL teams have statisticians, whose job it is to analyze large amounts of data and use it to help teams make decisions about which players to add and which strategies will help them be most successful.
“I thought, I like the NFL and I like math, so why not just combine the two?” he said. “My plan is to become a statistician for the NFL.”
Asirvadam plans to finish his bachelor’s in mathematics and then go on to graduate school to earn a master’s degree.
In the meantime, he’ll continue honing his Ninja Warrior skills and attempting to claim the sport’s ultimate prize.
“Winning American Ninja Warrior is always a goal for me; that would be a dream come true,” he said. “It would also be $1 million in my pocket. So much hard work, dedication and time go into preparing for it and it would be so cool to see it pay off.”
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