Most people watched Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl 60 halftime show for the music, the guest appearances, or the onstage wedding.
Austin Klapman watched his step count.
The 26-year-old Bay Area finance worker was one of roughly 500 performers dressed as sugarcane plants during the show at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. The elaborate set, designed to resemble Puerto Rico’s sugarcane fields, couldn’t rely heavily on rolling stage equipment because of field restrictions. So instead, the production used people.
About 500 of them.
Each wore a costume weighing roughly 40 pounds. Together, they became the backdrop.
Klapman did what any marathoner with a fitness app would do: he pressed record.
0.57 Miles, 1,198 Steps, One Viral Moment
Before stepping onto the field, Klapman turned on Strava and let it run through the performance.
When it was over, the data showed:
- 0.57 miles
- 1,198 steps
- 14 minutes, 21 seconds of movement
Not exactly a long run. But it didn’t matter.
“I love to track my activities and see my stats,” Klapman said to The Athletic. “I just thought it’d be funny — like a fun memorabilia of, ‘Hey, this is my little Strava walk of my halftime show performance.’”
He posted the activity to TikTok. Within 48 hours, it had drawn 1.2 million views. Strava joined the fun, sharing his workout on Instagram, where it has more than 115,000 likes.
“Is it too early to crown Strava activity of the year?” the company wrote. “10/10 no notes.”
The comment section quickly filled with runners who fully appreciated the absurdity.
One wrote, “the Strava flex of my dreams.” Another joked, “I can’t believe you didn’t make the extra laps to complete 1 mile.”
From a Text Message to the Super Bowl Field
Klapman didn’t set out to perform at the Super Bowl. He only applied after his mother sent him a link and suggested he sign up.
“I guess it got approved,” he told The Athletic. “Next thing I knew, I was practicing to be a grass person for the halftime show.”
The casting call required performers to fall within a specific height range to fit the suits. Klapman, who stands 5-foot-9, qualified. The application also asked about marching or dancing experience — he figured a college dance course at Monmouth University might help.
It did.
Performers reportedly worked about 70 hours total, including eight days of rehearsals and game day. Some reports say they were paid $18.70 per hour, which would total roughly $1,309, though Klapman declined to discuss pay and said cast members were told not to share production details.
He made clear he wasn’t there for the money.
“I would have done it for free,” he said. “Just being a part of the Super Bowl, it was the greatest honor ever.”
Another Newsworthy Halftime Show
Bad Bunny, whose full name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, became the first solo artist to headline the Super Bowl halftime show almost entirely in Spanish. The performance included appearances by Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin and even featured a couple legally marrying onstage.
For Klapman, the most intense part wasn’t the movement. It was the moment.
“Walking through the tunnel onto the field as a regular person, not an NFL athlete, and seeing tens of thousands of people, and then realizing the rest of the world was watching,” he said. “It was a crazy feeling. My heart was racing.”
He has tougher workouts on Strava. He’s currently training for the New York City Marathon.
But none of them came with a global audience.
And in perhaps the most runner move of all, he used the viral moment to make a request. Under Strava’s Instagram post, Klapman commented:
“HEY THIS IS ME! IM LOOKING FOR A NYC MARATHON BIB THIS YEAR.”
From marathon training to halftime shrubbery, it turns out everything counts as long as you hit record.
