On Friday evening, the Viii Sports Competition will air on ESPN 2 and one of the competitors featured in the event is Kim Kaiser of Billings.
Kaiser is the Billings Family YMCA CEO and describes the new competition as unique and chaotic.
"It's eight sports in three minutes," Kaiser said. "It's awesome because anyone can do it. Your time might not be great, but anybody can try it."
The competition is set on a 3-minute course. Contestants go from one station to the next, testing their abilities at things like chipping golf balls into a designated area, shooting a basketball, or hitting a tennis ball into a target.
Contestants are scored based on their time and performance in the different stations.
While the competition that will appear on ESPN Friday was held in Nashville, Tennessee, back in May, Kaiser's introduction to the sport came years before at a YMCA convention.
"The guy who invented Viii sports was there and did a promo at one of our receptions," Kaiser said. "He said, 'Hey, I'm looking for some (YMCA clubs) that would be interested in pilot testing this new sport I came up with.'"
Kaiser said as soon as she saw the presentation, she was in.
"Of course I was all in," Kaiser said. "This looks like something that would be amazing and an awesome thing to bring to our community."
So, the Billings YMCA became one of eight around the country that opted to help pilot the program. An event was hosted in Billings in 2022 allowing them to offer feedback to the creator.
Kaiser didn't just oversee the event in Billings. She competed in it, earning the best time and score of any female participant.
"Personally, I thought this was a great challenge and an opportunity to see how good I could get at each one of these," Kaiser said.
Kaiser also won another competition in Crown Point, Indiana. Both wins helped Kaiser earn an invitation to the ESPN-hosted event in Nashville.
"The creator approached me and said, 'It would be awesome to have a woman who has won some of these at this invitational,'" Kaiser said. "So, that was kind of how I got the chance to compete."
And while many of us would have been nervous to compete around so many cameras, Kaiser said she did her best to ignore them.
"I think having the cameras on you can be kind of scary," Kaiser said. "When you focus and play your sports, I don't know, I just kind of tried to block them out."
Kaiser said she wasn't allowed to tell MTN News how she did until the competition premiers on Friday night. Regardless of the outcome, she said she is looking forward to continuing to provide people in Billings a unique experience.
“I just thought it was an opportunity to have more healthy things for teens and our youth to do,” Kaiser said.
