[Warning: The following post contains MAJOR spoilers for The Challenge Season 41 finale.]
After a season of partner-swapping, sabotage, messy cast fights, and, of course, romance, The Challenge‘s Vets and New Threats run has ended. And now we have two new champions.
The first part of the finale left off on a cliffhanger: T.J. Lavin offered a new twist on staking a claim, in that any contestant could stake a claim for any other person to be their partner. Though some may have been tempted — particularly Sydney Segal, who felt her partner, Turabi “Turbo” Camkiran, was holding her back in the final — nobody took the bait.
For the overnight, then, the partners had to take turns, with one getting sleep in a tent while the other tried to balance on a log. Lavin announced that the results of the first day earned the players extra sleep time based on their placement. Understandably, Sydney was furious that her hard work only netted her 30 minutes of sleep, but the others, like Theo Campbell and Adrienne Naylor, sure wished they had that benefit.
After the night was over, Cedric Hodges woke up with confusion that his and Michael Bradshaw’s team tether was missing, and it looked like Theo might’ve been the one to swipe it. However, he didn’t name names, and the team was handed a five-minute penalty as a result — compounding the problem they were already facing with Michael’s busted ankle.
The second day’s challenge was a race to the summit of the mountain, with various checkpoints along the way.
The first checkpoint saw the players answering trivia questions about their teammates to receive the numbers for a combination to a chest. Sydney and Turbo smashed it — spending so much time together in self-imposed isolation had its perks.
The second checkpoint was, once again, a maddening waiting game, as they then had to wait for the second-place team to come along and play an oversized game of Connect Four against Olivia Kaiser and Yeremi Hykel. Luckily, they won thanks to a sharp-eye-save from Turbo. Then, Theo and Adrienne caught up to play against Olivia and Yeremi and won to move on. They then faced Michaela and Cedric, who also beat them and left them with a 10-minute penalty.
Though they were at a major disadvantage heading into the long stretch, the final hike was the great equalizer as it tested all of the teams’ endurance and willpower. First, they passed Theo and Adrienne; then, they got ahead of Michaela and Cedric; finally, they managed to get the better of Sydney and Turbo.
With that, Olivia and Yeremi became The Challenge Season 41’s champions, earning wins for both a vet and a new threat.
1st Place: Olivia Kaiser and Yeremi Hykel
2nd Place: Turabi “Turbo” Camkiran and Sydney Segal
3rd Place: Michaela Bradshaw and Cedric Hodges
4th Place: Theo Campbell and Adrienne Naylor
The Challenge, MTV