The Challenge 40 Battle of the Eras Player Preview: Rachel Robinson
When you talk about the greatest female competitors in Challenge history, Rachel Robinson is one of the first names to come up, in part because she is one of the true OGs and legends of the game. Before Laurel, before Cara Maria, and hell, even before Evelyn, Rachel was a badass female competitor on The Challenge. Rachel is a 2x Champion, is the OG Fitness Queen, was part of one of the most iconic duos in show history (her & Veronica), and at one point in time, she was viewed as the greatest female competitor in show history.
Now, all these years later, Rachel is back to compete, win some money for her family, and remind people why she’s one of the best players ever.
Rachel’s Cheat Sheet
Introducing Rachel:
At only 19 years old, Rachel made her Reality TV debut on the iconic Road Rules Campus Crawl. She appeared alongside other notable future Challenge competitors, such as Darrell Taylor, Shane Landrum, Kendal Sheppard, and Sarah Greyson. Rachel and Darrell actually hooked up on their Road Rules season , which makes the possibility of them being an Exes pair, even today, an exciting prospect. It’s a forgotten hookup a bit as Rachel is more known for being one of the OG LGBT Reality TV personalities.
Rachel made her Challenge debut on Battle of the Sexes 1, where she instantly hit it off with Aneesa, and they dated a bit after the show. This season, Rachel was not the best player, but she was strong physically, made it through the first seven votes, and was still far from the bottom on the team scoreboard-wise. Unfortunately, alliances existed, and they controversially decided to cut Rachel. It led to Rachel’s famous emotional speech and exit, in which she said: “The inner circle is UGLY. This game is UGLY.” It’s one of those quotes that separates the OGs and new school fans. If you know, you know, and if you don’t, you don’t. It’s a quote that signifies what The Challenge would become.
(Also Veronica might’ve said part of the quote first on a previous season, but Rachel’s emotion really sold it).
Rachel’s subsequent few stints on The Challenge would be heavily tied to Veronica. They were “best friends” on the show but were dating in real life. The actual timeline of Veronica and Rachel’s relationship is sometimes difficult to pinpoint. Regardless, they were an iconic duo. On Gauntlet 1, Rachel and Veronica each went to the Final without seeing elimination as they were both strong players for the Road Rules team. They ended up winning the Final, and Rachel was now a Challenge Champion.
She would return for Battle of the Sexes 2, where, again, Rachel’s run on the season got cut short because she got outplayed politically. Ironically enough, the deciding vote that ended Rachel’s game came from Tina. The next season, Rachel was back for Inferno 2 as part of the Bad Asses, where she, Veronica, and Tina formed the legendary “Mean Girls” trio. They were three strong-willed women who were strong competitors and wouldn’t let the men push them around. Again, Rachel never saw an elimination this season, largely because she was viewed as the strongest woman on her team. In the Final, Rachel, Veronica, and her team got let down by Tina & Tonya, who completely gassed out — also, they were facing a stacked Good Guys team.
We wouldn’t see Rachel or Veronica for a few years after Inferno 2. The Challenge changed quite a bit during their exit — as the Fresh Meat/JEK era began. Rachel and Veronica went their separate ways, and Rachel came back solo for The Island. On The Island, Rachel despised the way Kenny & Bananas were treating people, and when their alliance tried to strong-arm two keys into their hands with Abram quitting, Rachel attempted to rally votes to take Bananas out. Rachel’s attempt failed, and her time on The Island was mostly downhill from there. The only positive for Rachel is that we saw her begin a showmance with Jenn Grijalva, which would later continue and bleed into The Duel 2. Ultimately, Rachel’s season got cut short after losing an intense physical face-off against KellyAnne Judd and then a vote out between her and Robin. It was a tough loss for Rachel as she got outplayed physically and politically.
Right after The Island, Rachel returned immediately for The Duel 2. In a purely individual game, Rachel thrived. She was clearly the top woman in the house as she won 4 out of 9 daily challenges (the most by any woman) and did not see elimination as people were afraid to face her. Rachel blew out her competition in the Final and technically crossed the finish line before the men. It’s objectively one of the most impressive wins in Challenge history and made Rachel a 2x Champion.
After The Duel 2, there was a legit argument for Rachel being the greatest female competitor in show history. Over the years, Rachel fell down the ranks partly because new women emerged in top-level competitors, and overall competitive depth across the board rose dramatically. You watch seasons like War of the Worlds 1 & 2 and compare the size and athleticism of those female casts versus those from the OG era — the difference is stark. On top of all that, there’s also recency bias, where we always want to crown and anoint new players as the best. I’m guilty of that as I typically have never ranked Rachel within my Top 5 All-Time female competitors as I show preference to the last twenty seasons more — which isn’t fair to Rachel because she is someone who, based on her fitness & athleticism, likely would’ve thrived in the modern era of The Challenge.
What does hurt Rachel’s legacy is that her last MTV season was an underwhelming run (through no fault of her own). We last saw Rachel compete on Exes 1 with Aneesa as a partner. They were a dual-female team in a co-ed game built for co-ed teams to thrive. It didn’t help that Rachel also looked miserable in the house environment. Rachel was not put in a position to succeed on Exes 1, and it sucked that it was the only time some modern viewers got to watch her compete.
Till recently, when Rachel made her return on All-Stars 4…That ended up being a bit underwhelming. Rachel won a Gold Star from the jump and had a massive target on her back, to which she got thrown into elimination against Ayanna, where they had a tough battle, with Rachel ultimately prevailing. While Rachel’s fitness and strength were unquestionable, there were a couple of moments in the daily challenges where, mentally, she wasn’t 100% back to her old self. Even worse, Rachel didn’t even get a shot to get the motor fully back up and running as she got thrown into a funky elimination against Cara. Let me be clear: she and Cara Maria got thrown into one of the dumbest and worst formatted eliminations ever that made two beasts look silly. Cara got the win, and Rachel was out after only four episodes.
The return of Rachel was something we were all excited about because even though she had been absent for over a decade, we were still aware of her as her friends, Shane, Veronica, and Tina, had made returns over the years. We could see online that Rachel was kicking ass in the fitness influencer and personal trainer world. She had a few kids with her wife and was in crazy shape even while pregnant. And then we saw Rachel begin doing an MTV Challenge branded workout series online. On All-Stars 4, Rachel got her feet wet, and she got to have her Mean Girls reunion. Now, we get to see her compete with real motivation to kick ass.
Skills & Physical Strength:
When Rachel won The Duel 2, she was far and away the most fit woman on the cast. Her personal fitness is now exponentially stronger than it was 15 years ago. While she might not have some of the fast, raw, explosive athleticism from her youth, Rachel is still a great athlete and has a motor that will not stop. I think the fact that she’s only competed in four daily challenges in the last decade will lead to Rachel having a bit of tentativeness once she has to compete in certain heights or carnival game challenges.
Once she gets that rust off, Rachel will be dangerous. If you follow Rachel’s Instagram, you will see that she clearly works out every part of her body and is ready for anything that can be thrown at her physically. Specifically, Rachel’s core strength is phenomenal. Now, I do wonder how good of a swimmer Rachel is, and we haven’t seen her compete in many water challenges throughout her career.
SSMP (Social, Strategic, Mental, and Political) Game:
Typically, Rachel has a great social game that’s strengthed by her physicality as men want her as a partner in the Final & daily challenges, and women were historically intimidated to face her in elimination. All-Stars 4 having a one-winner format put Rachel in a tough position as everyone in the house saw her and Cara as the biggest threats. On Season 40, Rachel is an indispensable asset to her era, and, as an individual, she should get on well with most of the cast.
We know Rachel is long-time friends with Tina, Mark, Derrick, Brad, and Darrell. She also did All-Stars 4 and was on friendly terms with Cara, Laurel, etc. Additionally, Rachel has had a plethora of cast members she’s competed on a season with appear on her Challenge workout series, including Kyland, Jordan, Tori, Nia, and Kaycee.
When it comes to the social & political game, the big question mark for Rachel is how she’ll operate with Johnny Bananas. She has disliked him since The Island, and that affected her game & experience on Exes 1. Rachel has been vocally outspoken against him for many years online as well. Bananas plays a more low-key game now; however, he is historically vindicative, so should Rachel try to shoot first? If she does that, will it put a target on her with the rest of the house? Rachel is in a house where she might not actually be the fittest person or the top competitor as you have Jenny & Emily, who are fitness queens, and then legends in Cara & Laurel — not to mention other top players like Kaycee, Tori, and Jodi. It’s a unique experience for Rachel. Should Rachel try to get all those women together to build a strong women’s alliance, or are those players too dangerous to face in a Final? I know I’m supposed to be the expert here, but I’m genuinely not sure what would be better.
I think it depends on how strong Rachel is with puzzles. I’m not saying Rachel is bad at puzzles — it’s just that when I look back at her original shows, she wasn’t doing many puzzles as an individual, and you would always compare her to Veronica, who is incredible at mental comps. If Rachel isn’t killer with puzzles, she has to play a more risky game because there are other fit people there who can solve them.
Eliminations & Winning Potential:
Even though Rachel is a legend of this game, she does not have much experience in eliminations, and some of those experiences have been a little clunky, like her and Aneesa’s eliminations on Exes 1 and her match-up with Cara on All-Stars. I’m confident Rachel would do well in any physical elimination — whether it be endurance-based or a headbanger. She is fearless and a true competitor, plus she has mom strength.
I will note that as physically stout as Rachel is — she does not weigh a ton. Rachel has a ton of muscle, a low body fat percentage, and is decently tall at 5'7. She can overpower a majority of this cast. However, if she gets a heavily size-based elimination, Rachel could have issues, as we saw Ayanna give her some trouble in their eliminations. Players like Laurel or Tori have Ayanna’s size and have greater motors as competitors. They could give Rachel real trouble.
Can Rachel win? Although Rachel has not run a Challenge Final in over 15 years, and they have dramatically become more difficult since then, I’m confident that she has the cardio to do well in a Final. If Rachel wants to win, she needs to be competent with puzzles, must be able to eat gross foods, and it would help if certain players got eliminated before the Final. Seriously, though, Rachel is a legit contender to win, and if she pulls it off, then we have to take a long minute and evaluate where she ranks all-time.
