He may not have finished the obstacle course, but Charles Kim still went home a winner after competing on NBC’s ‘American Ninja Warrior.’
That’s because 29-year-old Kim, from Chicago, used his time on air to pop the question to his now-fiancé Kristine Valenzuela, who grew up in Downers Grove, according to the Daily Herald.
Kim took on the infamous course in Indianapolis in April, and the episode aired Monday, June 13. His training video shows impressive strength, but ultimately the “swinging spikes” got the best of him and he fell into the pool below.
After toweling off, he snagged the engagement ring from his mom in the stands, and in true ‘Warrior’ fashion, dropped down into the splits instead of on one knee. Valenzuela, a nurse, said yes.
But that wasn’t all. The technology consultant created a sweet video proposal chronicling exactly 10 months before the proposal aired. Valenzuela loves scrapbooks, he said, so he created a YouTube video and scrapbook documenting their time together and all the occasions on which he’s thinking of her.
The video opens on the proposal, then flashes back to August 13, 2015.
“I don’t exactly know when I’m going propose to you just yet, it could be tomorrow it could be a year from today,” Kim said in the video before beginning to play ‘Tale as Old as Time’ from ‘Beauty and the Beast’ on the piano.
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“I just want to make sure that it’s the perfect moment and I also want to make sure there’s a big audience,” he added. “I want a lot of people watching. I want the eyes of the world to know how much I love you.”
Even though he didn’t win the competition, it looks like he got his wish.
