Kai Beckstrand ’s American Ninja Warrior win almost slipped away—he trailed brother Luke and rival Noah Meunier before pulling off a last-minute victory. Kai tells Collider that both races were a challenge — but for completely different reasons.

"Racing Luke, obviously, I knew exactly what he's capable of, so that's where the difference was. So I knew that as long as he put together a clean run," Kai says, adding that he anticipated the race would be close, but "It ended up being a lot closer than I wanted it to be." He recounts the exact moment when he fell behind and knew if he didn't recover, Luke would have won. "I got hung up on the rings for a little bit, and he dismounted early," he recalls. "I knew I was gonna be playing catch up for the rest of that race."

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