SPECIAL ISRAELVALLEY. Tout le monde connait en Israël Youval Shemla, la superstar de « Ninja Israël ». Son visage (des lunettes en permanence) est devenu une marque. Les publicitaires lui offrent des ponts d’or pour représenter des grandes marques de sport.
Les israéliens passent des heures chaque semaine à voir, en famille, « Ninja Israël », un programme de télé réalité de Keshet basé sur la très populaire version américaine « American Ninja Warrior », elle-même inspirée par le show télévisé japonais Sasuke.
L’idée du programme ninja est de mettre en compétition des centaines de compétiteurs dans une série de courses d’obstacles d’une difficulté croissante. La version israélienne de la course d’obstacles « Ninja Israël » a été créée au port d’Haïfa pour le programme de Keshet diffusé sur la Douzième chaîne. Le parcours d’activités ninja inclut plusieurs centaines de mètres de course d’obstacles comme un mur d’escalade déformé, des chaînes pour se balancer et une zone pour les sauts. (Photo : Oded Karni)
LE PLUS. For quite a few years, Yuval Shamla was an angry boy. A child with ADHD and a problematic student who did not find himself in the usual frameworks. « At the end of every year I would come home with the certificate and die scared of the moment my mother would read it and her reaction. 6th grade was the most horrible for me. On the last day of school I gave her the certificate, and she looked at me and said, ‘Yuval, look what a beauty, you improved in English Now
I’m going to celebrate and eat sushi. When you are a child and are only told the things you are not good at, it is very frustrating. Two years later, when I went up to ninth grade, I was already able to find myself in classes.
« I had a lot of difficulties as a child. I have ADHD that I face to this day. As a child I could not listen for more than two minutes in a row, which is why I would make trouble, and also laugh at others. Frustrate me that everyone succeeds and I do not, so I looked for my way « In hindsight, I’m very sorry for the nonsense I did. »
How did you handle that?
« With the help of my mother, and of course with the climb. As a child, one of the things that kept me from getting better was that I thought I had ADHD and nothing to do with it. But sports in general, and climbing in particular, showed me that there is no such thing. I knew how to approach the goals I had set for myself and achieve them.
« I think after I finish competing, I will go and study math or physics. I try to understand how things around us work, or even how the universe works. In recent years, with all the mental coping, I have also thought about studying neuroscience. But I have more time. »
Well, now you’re talking like the image of your nerd
But as a kid I was very annoying. I did not have glasses then, I looked different. »
Would it be an exaggeration to say that sport saved your life?
» Sport made me relax, because I found a place to spend all my energies, and also a place of belonging.
I want to believe I’m in a good enough environment to know how to find myself, but sport has given me the happiness in life.
I do not want to think where I would be without him. »
Now that he is full of stars. In fact, he has been a star since his first win in » Ninja Israel « , in its first season, after which he also returned for the second season but failed to reach the final. The third season, plus a new 4×4 car. But even the day after the victory, he does not sit on the beach on foot and enjoys the reactions. In fact, it is very difficult to schedule the interview with him, because he does not stop training.
« The second I arrived at Haifa Port, I looked at the track and was happy « I’m glad they brought such a difficult track, because that’s why I came to this competition – to see what I’m capable of and how far I can go. I saw the track, and you do not understand how much I wanted to get on it. »
And in the end you could not finish it, as happened to everyone who reached the final.
» Before I got on the track I said in my heart ‘thank you’, because that’s what my late dad would say every morning. That I was going to do the best I could. I also reminded myself that I came to enjoy every obstacle. I did everything possible, I was focused and focused, and I did not think of anything else except the route. I was able to navigate the pressure to a good place. When I reached the penultimate obstacle, the doors Swinging, I knew there was no way I wasn’t going to get through it.
”The last hurdle, the tension bar jump, was something I had never faced in my life.
From the moment I started swinging until the jump, it felt like an eternity to me.
I remember going up high, I positioned the pole, I said to myself ‘you do it!’, But I did not watch the landing force, and my hands just let go and I fell into the pool. »
Can you tell me where you went wrong?
» Before I got on the jump I was focused on my position. And take a deep breath and do not rush.
I had a good swing, and I wanted to go up and pinch the pole so I could get with the body underneath.
But I did not think that my hands would be released.
In my head, as soon as I pinched the pole, I succeeded – and here was my miss.
If someone had told me I needed to catch on tight, I probably would not have fallen.
But that’s part of the whole story. »
erans@israelhayom.co.il
What’s the first thing that went through your mind at the moment of the fall?
