Andrew Drechsel, a personal trainer who won season 11 of the NBC competition game show “American Ninja Warrior,” has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for sex crimes involving a minor. The sentencing comes after Mr. Drechsel pleaded guilty on June 1, 2023, to one count of receiving child pornography and one count of “knowingly persuading, inducing, enticing and coercing a minor to travel interstate to engage in sexual activity,” the release states.
Upon serving his 121-month prison sentence, Mr. Drechsel must also complete 15 years of supervised release and pay $100,000 in restitution to the victim. On Nov.
8, 2019, law enforcement officials searched the former television personality’s phones, finding evidence of child sexual abuse, including photos and videos taken of the minor in question—who lived in New Jersey at the time—when she was 14 and 15 years old. Mr. Drechsel told officials that he met the female minor in 2014 “through his activities in the parkour community as an ‘American Ninja Warrior,’” according to the release.
He also admitted to exchanging text messages with the girl, in which he shared his intentions of engaging in sexual activity with her. According to the complaint, Mr. Drechsel “engaged in online sexual communications with a minor and induced her to manufacture sexually explicit images of herself,” which she sent to Mr.
Drechsel. Mr. Drechsel also traveled to New Jersey “with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct.
