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Former airman joins ‘American Gladiators’

Standing at a ferocious 5 feet 2 inches, this former Air Force Academy cheerleader doesn’t look like much compared with classic early 1990s American Gladiators like Diamond, Ice and Blaze.

But put Tanji Johnson, better known now as Stealth, on The Wall — her best event — and most will forget she was tossing pompoms at Falcons football games a decade ago.

Johnson is one of the newest gladiators on NBC’s revival of the series, which ran from 1989 to 1996 and featured muscle-bound behemoths like Nitro, Laser and Viper competing in concocted events like Assault, Hang Tough and The Gauntlet against amateur athletes. This time, wrestler Hulk Hogan and boxer Laila Ali are running the show. The season premiers Jan. 6 and will air regularly at 8 p.m. EST on Monday nights.

The former airman, who got out as a captain in January 2002, spent a year after graduation helping recruit minorities to attend the academy at Colorado Springs, and then worked as a maintenance officer on KC-135s.

Johnson is cut. She’s ranked fourth in the nation by the International Federation of Body Building in fitness competitions.

When she first started with the show, Johnson wanted to go by the name Falcon. But after show organizers saw her scale The Wall — when two gladiators race to the top of a rock-climbing wall — someone from the back said “She’s stealthy, she’s fast,” Johnson recalled.

The name Stealth stuck, which, she noted, also goes with the Air Force’s bombers.

Although The Wall is her specialty, Johnson already had some experience at Joust, in which gladiators and contestants stand on platforms and bludgeon each other with pugil sticks. The academy’s basic training features a similar event.

Too bad the cadets don’t have to face off with the likes of Turbo and Zap.

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