Edmonton teen representing Canada at international ninja competition

Spencer O'Brien, 17, shows off his ninja skills in preparation for an international ninja competition. (Sean McClune/CTV News Edmonton)

An Edmonton hopeful is getting ready to represent Canada at the World Ninja League Championships this June.

Ninja, as it is commonly referred to, is an extreme parkour-like obstacle course competition with four main competition styles – most obstacle repetitions, fastest completions, most movement reps and longest elapsed time on an obstacle.

Spencer O’Brien, a 17-year-old ninja athlete, tells CTV News Edmonton how important it is to shine a light on the expanding sport of ninja, especially on an international stage.

“I like showing people what I'm made of … I want to represent myself across the whole world eventually and being able to show kids what it's like to get super good at ninja,” said Spencer.

“It just makes me happy to think about.”

Spencer got his first taste of the sport with his father, Kody O’Brien, who also doubles as his ninja coach. They first got involved at a ninja obstacle course at Kingsway Mall where Spencer immediately began to show promise in the sport.

“It's been super crazy to watch him grow with the sport when he started. He could barely swing around, monkey around and now he's worked himself to be the top pro ninja in Canada,” said Kody.

“Being able to coach both of my kids is amazing. Just that we can be in this together as a family… to get to be actively involved in the sport that they're in coaching them, competing with them, training with them – it's pretty awesome.”

Training three to four times a week, Spencer hopes his hard work will be enough to keep up with ninja veterans who have years of experience over the teenager. Kody knows how representing Canada will affect Spencer’s mindset going into the competition.

“He knows that it's a really big opportunity,” said Kody. “He's putting a lot of training in to be able to go there and to represent Canada amongst ninjas that are five or six years ahead of us on the sport.”

The O’Briens will be journeying out to the Greensboro Coliseum in North Carolina for the World Ninja League Championships taking place from June 21 - 24.

For more information about the sport of ninja or the World Ninja League, click the link.