The Top 10 Greatest Female Competitors in MTV Challenge History Without A Championship

Ok folks, I began this blog on February 28th, 2023:

In the 19 months since I began it, I’ve had to make a bunch of revisions, take people off and put them on the list, rearrange orders, and so on.

For this blog, I’m ranking the greatest female competitors in Challenge history who have never officially earned the title of Challenge Champion. To rank highly on this list, I’m taking into account total resumes, people who were the closest to winning/deserved the title of winner, and those who either played the game in the most well-rounded way or had an impressive peak. Additionally, we are generally prioritizing people with more seasons under their belt for these rankings. For reference, a player like Heather Cooke proved to be a remarkable talent & athlete on Rivals 2, except because she did only one season, we would have to do a lot of projection, especially when compared to someone who competed on 5–10 seasons.

With these rankings, I tried to be somewhat objective, although this is essentially my personal opinion from watching the show in-depth, and it’s going to be subjective. There might be something in a player that I see that you don’t. In some cases, I might be projecting too much. If you disagree with me, feel free to argue in the comments wherever you see this.

Honorable Mentions

One-and-Done Crew:

Heather Cooke, Brittini Sherrod, Svetlana Shusterman

All three women competed on one season of The Challenge and finished in 2nd Place. Cooke was a collegiate soccer player whose athleticism in her pairing with Cara Maria, where they came up short to the super duo of Emily & Paula on Rivals 2. Svetlana and Brittini were standouts from The Duel 1 & 2, where they lost dominant individual players in Jodi & Rachel. I think Brittini was the better competitor between the two, although Svetlana was the more notable personality.

Challenge Spin-Off Players:

Michaela Bradshaw, Angela Rummans, Zara Zoffany

It’s hard to account for the spin-off players a bit. I thought Angela on Challenge USA 1 had one of the most impressive individual seasons I’ve ever watched and had the Final not been a shitshow; she might’ve won. Similarly, Michaela was amazing to watch in terms of politics and athleticism on USA 2 — where she was the top woman on that season, only to come up short to the equally amazing Desi in the Final and got screwed over a bit by a wonky Final format. Zara was literally one minute short of Kaz in The Challenge UK Final, and as we saw her on Season 39, she is the epitome of fitness & cardio.

If this list was based purely on talent, these three women would be in the Top 10 for sure.

Never Made It To A Final Crew:

Amanda Garcia & Michele Fitzgerald:

Putting Amanda & Michele together is funny because they don’t like each other. They are in similar boats, where they’re not physical threats, yet are scrappy and bring skills to the game. Amanda & Zach were the best team on Final Reckoning; they won the most daily challenges despite not even placing Top 9 on the season, and they were a better version of the team that won the Final (Hunter & Ashley). I believe they would’ve won had Zach not stepped off the platform, and he would have stolen the million dollars from her. Meanwhile, I think Michele played a flawless game on Battle For A New Champion, where she managed a giant alliance, had people who were willing to take bullets for her, and got to the last daily challenge with massive threats like Horacio, Kyland, Zara, Ed, and Ciarran all out before the Final. In that specific Final, there was a lot of water & puzzles, which is Michele’s forte — had she not lost in that purge, she would’ve had a good shot to win.

Good Resumes, Bad Finals Performances:

Aneesa Ferreira, Jenn Grijalva, Tina Bridges:

Aneesa has been on many seasons and is tied for the all-time elimination wins record. That said, I struggle to find a season where Aneesa should have won. Her performance on The Duel 2 Final was catastrophically bad, where she was in 3rd Place and lost by multiple hours. 12 years later, when she competed in the All-Stars 1 Final, Aneesa was the 5th Place Female and wasn’t even close to players like Ruthie & Jemmye.

Jenn Grijalva is one of the better political players in Challenge history, holds a solid 5–2 elimination record, and went to three straight Finals to end her career. Unfortunately, she came in 3rd out of 3 or 4th out of 4 in every single one. While Jenn was a solid player, I don’t think she ever had the skills to win in a non-big-team season.

Tina has an impressive early Challenge resume. She almost made the Battle of the Sexes 2 Final, went to the Final of Inferno 2 and Fresh Meat 1, and won some notable eliminations. Unfortunately, her performance in the Inferno 2 Final hurt her team, and on Fresh Meat 1, she and Kenny got blown out by Darrell and Aviv in the Final.

Lack of Puzzle Skills

Nicole Zanatta

Nicole has gone to three Finals in four seasons and has never been traditionally eliminated. She’s just such a non-factor when it comes to the mental side of the game that it’s hard to envision her winning.

Impressed Me But There’s Not Enough There:

Georgia Harrison & Olivia Kaiser:

Straight up, not many players have impressed me as much as Georgia Harrison did out of the gate of War of the Worlds 1. She eliminated Ashley Mitchell in the season’s first elimination and had some kickass daily challenge performances throughout the season. Tragically, Georgia’s Final performance included an immediate medical DQ from overheating & dehydration from trying to keep pace with the men in that solo Final. Georgia had a run on WOTW 2 but lost to a strong player in Tori, and sadly, we haven’t seen her since. I thought Olivia was the female star of Ride or Dies. She won three eliminations and went to the Final with Horacio on her Rookie season. Additionally, Olivia has a strong physical build that should allow her to be a good competitor for years; I just don’t know if we’ve seen enough from her as a solo player for her to make the Top 10.

10 Theresa Jones

When you look at the raw numbers, Theresa has competed on 7 seasons, has a 2–7 elimination record, went to only one Final, and the one season she went to the Final, she also got eliminated. Hell, based on the numbers, Theresa should probably be more in the conversation for worst players of all time. Whether you respect Theresa as a competitor or not comes down to the question: “Did you watch Exes 2?”

I personally believe that Exes 2 Theresa is one of the premier competitors The Challenge has ever seen. Before I get to her Exes 2 run, I want to talk about how Theresa accumulated such a bad elimination record, as a lot of it was all-time bad luck. On Fresh Meat 2, Theresa’s partner was Ryan, who is statistically one of the Top 5 worst daily challenge competitors ever on the men’s side, and they lost the last elimination of the season to Jenn & Noor. On Cutthroat, Theresa would’ve likely beat Tori Hall in the backpack elimination, except she had to face Tina first in the Heavy Hitter match-up, and because of that, Tina was tired by the time she took on Tori. When Theresa got a good partner on Rivals 1 with Camila, luck still wasn’t on their side as they ran into a buzzsaw and had to face Laurel & Cara in elimination — going against the two best female elimination competitors ever is tough. Then, on Rivals 2, Theresa got paired with Jasmine, and as much as I enjoy Jasmine’s drama — she’s not a good competitor whatsoever.

Theresa finally got to compete as a solo player on Free Agents, and this season, we began to see her thrive. Her fitness and athleticism shined, and the men definitely welcomed her as a partner in daily challenges. She beat Camila in an elimination and got to the final four, where she unfortunately had to face Laurel in a surprise elimination. Their elimination ended up being super close, and if Theresa had won it, she probably would’ve won the Final, considering she had superior cardio than Nany.

Regardless, Theresa took the momentum from Free Agents, and with Wes as her partner on Exes 2, they fucking kicked ass. On Exes 2, Theresa’s fitness, athleticism, and mental prowess shined. Together, she and Wes won 3/9 daily challenges and finished Top 2 in 6 of the 9 challenges. Notably, they dominated the Exes 2 Mini Final, where Theresa’s memorization skills & cardio left all the teams in the dust. She and Wes also outswam Jordan & Sarah in a daily challenge — where we know Wes is a great swimmer, but Theresa outpaced two of the best swimmers in Challenge history in Jordan & Sarah. Theresa almost outswam them again had she not almost broken her hand while holding onto a rope in another swimming challenge. It’s crucial to note that although Wes was already a legend in the game before Exes 2, his career daily challenge record to that point was not stellar. On Exes 2, Wes was also the thinnest version of himself, so Theresa carried them athletically.

Had the Redemption Twis not happened, I believe Wes & Theresa would’ve been the favorites in the Final. At the least, they would’ve been neck and neck with Jordan & Sarah, who are each Top 5 Male and Female competitors All-Time.

9 Jenna Compono

This one is tough because I think Jenna is one of the most overrated players in Challenge history. She began her career by going to three straight Finals and was at one point 5–0 in eliminations. On paper, that should put her at the top of this list. Except when you dig deeper into the context and the numbers, she’s a bit less impressive. Jenna had two of the worst Final performances — where she and Jay DQ’d/quit on Exes 2 as they could not drink the fish juice. Before anyone says Jenna would’ve drank the juice if Jay did — I’ve seen Jenna compete on this show and be unable to eat a mild curry. On Bloodlines, her inability to eat led to her and her cousin Briana coming in 3rd, losing to Mitch & Cory when Cory had no ACL.

Jenna & Vince did come in 2nd on Rivals 3, but they were far from Bananas & Sarah overall, and Devin & Cheyenne were one of/if not the worst finalist pair this show has ever seen. Continuing to dig in, Jenna’s daily challenge stats are historically bad, and she’s gotten purged 3x on the show, partly because there are certain comps where she’s a bit of a zero. Once the female competition level on this show rose, Jenna never made it back to a Final.

Some people might be upset to see Jenna ranked this low. In all honesty, I probaly would have put Jenna in the honorable mentions sections alongside Aneesa & Jenn if I didn’t see her ranked so highly by so many fans and her fellow players.

I say all this, there was a point on this show where Jenna was the Barbie Beast — she had an excellent social game, awesome cardio, had great size/height, and was a safe bet to go far. Not to mention, Jenna has racked up impressive elimination wins over the years against strong players like KellyAnne, Tori, and Sylvia.

8 Nany Gonzalez

So you might wonder why Aneesa got left off the list and why Nany is on here when they’ve had similar Challenge careers and when Aneesa has a superior elimination record (14–14 compared to Aneesa’s 7–10). It comes down to a few factors, the first being that Nany has been closer to winning. Nany has two 2nd Place finishes, one coming on an individual season on Free Agents and the other coming in a pair format on Ride or Dies — the closest Aneesa has ever come was being on the losing team in the Final on The Gauntlet 2, where she didn’t get to perform.

During Aneesa’s Final performances, she’s fallen behind massively due to her poor cardio and endurance. While Nany has never been the best Final runner, she’s never gassed out and always keeps a steady pace. Additionally, there is a clear difference between Nany & Aneesa regarding how their counterparts treat them. When players partner with Aneesa, they actively dread it, knowing her weaknesses and her lack of effort. Whereas nobody is ever really upset when they get Nany as a partner, and they typically gain a new respect for her. Nany is one of those players who is extremely capable and generally balanced. Even though she’s not dominant at anything, Nany has no major glaring weaknesses, so she rarely comes in Last Place in daily challenges. Throughout her career, Nany has also had multiple standout daily challenges and even elimination performances.

Something I want to detail is that Turbo would not have done anywhere near as well on War of the Worlds 1 had it not been for Nany. She carried their team socially, politically, and even physically in a daily challenge or two; without her, he likely wouldn’t have won the season. They would’ve been dangerous if they had gotten to run the Final as a pair.

Nany has never had the ceiling that other players on this list have. Still, I think her consistency and floor warrant her spot on this list. I also went through this entire section without mentioning all the bad-luck moments throughout Nany’s Challenge career.

7 Kailah Casilla & Sylvia Elsrode

Going for a two-for-one here because I couldn’t decide who to rank higher between Sylvia and Kailah.

Between the two, Kailah has more of the sizzle, flair, and energy of a Champion. Kailah broke out onto the Challenge scene and immediately had a rivalry with the Lavender Ladies and then Cara & Camila. Whether or not Kailah was a top competitor, she immediately put her in the conversation with the top contenders. She also had the boldness and willingness to make big moves. On Dirty 30, Kailah and Jordan led the movement to purge Cara & CT. Then, on Vendettas, while Tony got the credit for voting in Bananas, Kailah was the first person willing to do so, and if she didn’t have the confidence/fearlessness in regards to making the move, I’m not sure Tony pulls the trigger. Kailah has always carried herself like a champion, and to boot, she has had two different seasons where she’s been the 2nd Place Female.

Being the 2nd Place Female on Vendettas was more impressive on paper for Kailah than in reality. Kailah’s Vendettas Final performance wasn’t much to boast about as Nicole DQ’d due to injury, and if Kam had not been hit with a grenade, she probably would’ve beat Kailah. It wasn’t a great look that Kyle and his hamster memory beat her in the last memorization portion. I do think Kailah deserves more credit for her All-Stars 3 performance. While Kailah had a clear physical advantage as the youngest woman on the cast, what impressed me about her this season was her strategic, political, and mental prowess. She was winning daily challenges by using her brain and finding clever shortcuts to win. Also, Kailah was one of the players running the Treehouse Alliance that ran the game. Unfortunately, Kailah got completely outmatched by Jonna in the All-Stars 3 Final.

Although Kailah had the sizzle, Sylvia’s had much more substance. People don’t really talk about Sylvia as a great competitor, and yet she’s been part of multiple electric eliminations upsets. Her win over Kailah on Invasion put her on the map, her elimination with Melissa on Vendettas is one of the most entertaining eliminations in show history, and she and Joss pulled off a win against Bananas and Tony on Final Reckoning.

Final Reckoning, in particular, is what gets Sylvia so high up on this list. In terms of format, with its loads of twists, purges, eliminations, and mercenaries, there’s never been a crazier season than Final Reckoning. Sylvia & Joss were the only team who entered the game on Day 1 and made it to the Final without seeing the Redemption House. They won multiple eliminations and swept the final two daily challenges to guarantee their spot in the Final, where they performed well. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, except when I am, and I’ll be frank in saying that I wouldn’t be shocked if Sylvia & Joss actually won the Final Reckoning Final, except because they wouldn’t have stolen the money, production went in a different direction. Even if the conspiracy theory isn’t true — what is true is that Sylvia was within reach of a victory on a pairs season with 16+ teams, and she holds a 5–2 elimination record.

6 Ruthie Alcaide

Among the first era of Challenge competitors, the greatest player to never win is easily Ruthie. On Battle of the Sexes 1, Ruthie had one of the most impressive seasons by an individual competitor. Ruthie entered the “Inner Circle” after defeating every man & woman in the second daily challenge of the season and then never left the Inner Circle from there. She ended the season as the top female performer, and there were multiple times where Ruthie was a clear standout. In the show’s early days, when the challenges were a bit more extreme, Ruthie’s mental toughness and agile athleticism shined.

The Challenge as a game would evolve over the years. Once the political and social game ramped up, Ruthie fell behind a bit. And when eliminations became a thing, Ruthie’s lack of weight/size got taken advantage of, and she lost to not-so-stellar opponents in Beth & Kim. In terms of what The Challenge used to be, Ruthie stands out as someone who did deserve the title of Champion based on her stellar performance on Battle of the Sexes, where she was the best out of an 18-woman cast.

Even nearly two decades later on All-Stars 1, Ruthie had moments where she shined competitively.

5 Nurys Mateo

Is it too early to rate Nurys this highly? I don’t think so, simply due to the fact that Nurys deserved the title of Challenge Champion after being the top female finisher on Battle For A New Champion. Nurys is in a fascinating situation because if not for the one-winner format, she never would’ve been put in a situation where she would have to face men like Horacio & Kyland in elimination as an individual. That elimination propelled Nurys to another level as she took down two men who were a combined 11–1 in elimination prior to their match-up. She didn’t defeat them in a game of luck, either. It was three unique puzzles with a decent amount of fitness/physicality involved overall.

Not to mention, Nurys also took down Olivia & James in the subsequent elimination and Moriah in another elimination during the Final. She singlehandedly took out around 20% of the cast and was the top female finisher in that Final. It’s a shame that Nurys didn’t get the official title of Challenge Champion.

People might be a bit low on Nurys following her early exit on Season 40, but to me, that loss does not take away from what she did on 39, as so many great players have made early exits. Other details to support Nurys’ spot on this list include the fact that she was instrumental in breaking Nelson’s historic daily challenge losing streak on Ride or Dies. She came up with the strategy that led to their victory to break the streak, and later in the season, Nurys mentally dominated a mini-final memorization/endurance challenge. The two wins Nurys got with Nelson were in heights/memory comps , which are two facets of the game that we know he struggles mightily in. Those boost her resume quite a bit.

4 KellyAnne Judd

KellyAnne has been a strong competitor since Day 1. On The Island, KellyAnne made a name for herself by taking down Rachel Robinson in a battle of endurance — the season before Rachel dominated The Duel 2. She also proved to be a strong-willed badass by being one of the only people to go against Kenny & The Mob.

KellyAnne would show the same gusto as she stood by Wes while the JEK Mob made their lives hell on The Ruins. Despite this, KellyAnne proved herself as a competitor and made it to the Final, where she & Sarah Rice gave the Champs a run for their money.

We’d later see KellyAnne on Bloodlines and Rivals 3, where she didn’t make it to the Final of either but proved to still be a solid competitor. I actually do think that had she won her carnival game elimination against Jenna on Bloodlines, she and her Cousin Anthony would have had a real shot to win that season.

Similar to Nurys, KellyAnne ranks so highly on this list as she was the #1 female alongside Jonna on Challenge All-Stars 1. On this season, it was clear that KellyAnne was the top female competitor. In the All-Stars 1 Final, KellyAnne shit the bed in the first two portions and then was the top female in every other portion from there on, including the last trek up the mountain and finished before Jonna. As much as I love Jonna, if there was a tiebreaker of who between them, it would be KellyAnne. After All-Star 1, KellyAnne made the Final of All-Stars 3, where his performance in the Final left much to be desired. Still, it was another resume booster. Then KellyAnne went on the World Championships, where even though she wasn’t a Champion, KellyAnne had some moments as a competitor & personality where she shined just as bright/if not brighter, than all the Champs.

Among all the players on this list, nobody is as hit-or-miss as KellyAnne. If you see KellyAnne on the wrong day, you’d think she was a lay-up. If you see KellyAnne on the right day, you’d think she’s a multi-time Champ.

3 Diem Brown

Whenever I do a ranking or a list, the most difficult player to rank is always Diem. Evaluating the human and the competitor is always two different things — because as a human, her story is #1. As a competitor, I never thought Diem was an elite player, largely because she was a bit limited by her size/frame. At the same time, that feels unfair to say because of everything she was dealing with physically.

Rarely did I ever watch a season and think Diem was a Top 2 competitor in the game. Regardless, Diem always carried herself as a top player and always put 110% of herself into this game (except for when she went on the Ruins for a quick appearance check and dipped). Crucially, Diem has had two different seasons where she was on the verge of winning/maybe should have, and that is Gauntlet 3 & Exes 1.

On Gauntlet 3, Diem was one of many people to lose due to Big Easy’s pitiful DQ. Meanwhile, on Exes 1, she and CT were on the verge of victory until CT gassed out, although CT was a big reason why they were in the lead in the first Place. Looking back on that season, they messed up politically by not forcing Bananas & Camila to face Emily & Ty in either of the last two eliminations — had they done so, they would’ve won the season.

To which, it’s crazy that Diem wasn’t able to pull the trigger on those moves when she was someone who began her Challenge career by taking risks on Fresh Meat 1, like going against Derrick’s alliance by tossing in Darrell/Aviv to face Theo/Chanda. For argument’s sake, I think what puts Diem above some of these other players is her strength in the social and political, where Diem yielded a good amount of power on multiple seasons. She also made it to the last elimination of Fresh Meat 1, The Duel 1, The Duel 2, and Rivals 2. Diem was consistently good throughout her Challenge career and was so damn close to a win a couple of times.

2 Ninja Natalie

There aren’t many humans I dislike more on this planet than Ninja Natalie. However, she undeniably deserves the title of Challenge Champion. War of the Worlds 1 had one of the Top 3 strongest female casts in Challenge History — Ninja finished 1st among that group, winning 5 daily challenges, an elimination, and was the only woman to complete the hardest Final in Challenge history. Ninja earned the title of Challenge Champion and if we were ranking wins All-Time, her performance would probably be near the top of the list for female competitors. Unfortunately, the season only crowned one winner.

If Ninja was a player people genuinely liked rather than hated, people would be clamoring on social media daily about how she got robbed.

I will note that Ninja also made the Final of her second season, War of the Worlds 2. However, she was a detriment to her team in the daily challenges due to her inability to communicate and lack of swimming skills.

1 Kam Williams

In my opinion, Kam is the clear #1. I would classify four out of her original five seasons as excellent.

On Vendettas, Kam had a historic rookie season, winning three eliminations and defeating two Mercenaries to qualify for the Final. Had she not been saddled with a penalty during Part 1, Kam likely would’ve finished 2nd or 3rd Overall this season.

Then, on Final Reckoning, Kam got saddled with Kayleigh Morris as a partner after her partner (Melissa) got DQ’d. The Kayleigh I saw on Vendettas had zero interest in actually competing. Kam went from Killa Kam to Coach Kam. She pushed and supported Kayleigh to the point that they were able to pull off three elimination wins as a pair. What she did was reminiscent of a ten-year veteran, not someone in their second season.

War of the Worlds 1 was a little underwhelming for Kam, and I’d say she & Ashley Cain underperformed. Nonetheless, she came back on War of the Worlds 2 and ran the game politically alongside Cara & Paulie. While everyone called it Cara’s Cult, Kam was the adult in the room, and her relationship with Kayleigh/UK side was critical to their success. Kam performed better than any woman on the US side during Day 1 of the Final — which made the fact she got puzzle purged ridiculous.

Kam’s masterpiece season was Double Agents. Alongside Leroy, she ran the house politically, took down Ashley in elimination, won a couple of dailies, and contributed to a few of Leroy’s daily wins as well. In that Final, Kam simply got outrun by Amber. Conspiracies exist that production switched the rules mid-way to benefit CT and Amber, but we won’t talk about that.

Because Kam’s resume is already spectacular. At 8–2, Kam has the second-best elimination record by any female through 10 eliminations, and it’s not an inflated total as her wins were quality wins over good players in games that often favored opponents. She’s run the house politically on two different occasions. As we saw through the years, Kam put in work and massively improved her swimming, cardio, and whatever it took to win. It’s a shame she doesn’t have the title of Champion.

Even years later, when Kam returned to The Challenge for All-Stars 4 less than eight months after giving birth, she was still a powerful figure while not in her best shape. Among women, Kam had the longest run without ever finishing in the bottom group in daily challenges. She won an elimination, took a Star from Cara, and the two went to war. In the end, Cara won — it would’ve been far more interesting to see them battle with Kam in her peak shape/prime. Having kids has put Kam’s Championship pursuits on pause for a bit, though, according to interviews, she’s definitely not retired, and if she ever comes back, I’d lose to see her get the title of Champion that she deserves at this point. Kam has played the game at a high level from so many different angles that some could only dream of and is already a legend even without the title of Challenge Champion.