Local Weatherman is Accomplished American Ninja Warrior
By Robert Held
Staff Writer
Joe Moravsky maybe familiar to some New Britain residents for his weather forecast on News 12 covering Fairfield and parts of New Haven counties. However, other residents of New Britain and Connecticut towns are starting to get to know Moravsky from his phenomenal performances on the NBC show American Ninja Warrior.
For those not familiar with the show, Ninja Warrior was originally started as a Japanese television show. On that version and the U.S. version contestants compete on a series of increasingly more difficult obstacles that test balance, agility, and upper body strength.
The top 15 contestants from each audition city plus 10 wild cards move on to Las Vegas every season. In Las Vegas, there are four more stages, and whichever contestant completes all four the fastest wins the million dollars. Nobody has completed all four stages, until last season, when Geoff Britten and Isaac Caldiero both did. However, because Caldiero completed the course faster, so only he walked away with the prize.
“I first watched the Japanese version of the show called Sasuke in high school and told my mom I wanted to compete on it, and even though she didn’t believe me, once I saw a friend of mine compete on season 4 of American Ninja Warrior I knew I had to get on it,” said Moravasky.
He then submitted an audition tape to producers of the show. The producers must have liked what they saw because after that, the show went with the weatherman ninja angle and Moravsky has been dominating the ninja warrior course for four seasons now.
Originally from Sherman, CT, Moravsky works as a meteorologist for News Channel 12 out of Norwalk and also teaches gymnastics and parkour part-time at a gym in Newtown called Vasi’s International Gymnastics.
Moravsky has been impressive in his four seasons on Ameican Ninja Warrior. On season six he made it further than any other contestant reaching the third stage in Las Vegas
“I have made it to the Las Vegas finals in all four seasons I have competed on and I have been the fastest finisher on some of those stages, including being among the top five finishers every season,” said Moravsky.
While this season is currently airing, Moravsky is not allowed to discuss how far he actually got despite the season being taped in advance. However, fans can see if he qualifies for Las Vegas on August 22nd on NBC.
Besides American Ninja Warrior, Moravsky has also been featured on the premier season of Team American Ninja Warrior and Ninja Warrior USA vs. the World on seasons two and three. After team USA lost to the European team by less than a second on season two, last season Moravsky and his USA teammates got revenge by reclaiming the title for the U.S.. Ironically, Moravsky was not even supposed to compete on the third season of the show.
“Originally, they wanted a whole new set of contestants that had not competed for the U.S. in the past, but the producers told me that if someone got sick or injured I could be a substitute, even though I figured the odds of that happening were slim I told the producers I was fine with being a sub,” said Moravsky. “Well, one of the guys competing for the US team did get sick and that was when I got called in to fill in for him.”
Viewers have seen Moravsky grow quite a bit over his four seasons competing on this show. When he started out, he was single but now the weatherman is married and just had his first child with his wife Stephanie.
Correction: We originally reported that Moravsky would qualify for Las Vegas in the latest episode of American Ninja Warrior, when he will actually be competing again on the August 22nd episode.
