With The Challenge: USA, viewers saw some minor feuds, grudges, and rivalries emerge during the show, but the one that took center stage involved Sarah Lacina and Angela Rummans.
Angela, a former Big Brother houseguest, proved to be a strong competitor from the start, winning early enough to establish some strong allies in the game.
Meanwhile, Sarah was part of the strong Survivor alliance immediately, which kept her protected from eliminations throughout most of the season.
However, it took her a while to eventually prove herself and qualify for TJ Lavin’s final. By then, it was clear that her primary target ahead of that final had become Angela.
Both women would make it to the final after winning eliminations to survive in the game. However, only one woman could win out of the five women that reached the final.
This report will contain spoilers from The Challenge: USA finale, including the season winners’ names and more.
Sarah comments about her relationship with Angela
Recent exit interviews for The Challenge: USA had various finalists speaking about what went down in that finale, including the crazy eliminations, disqualifications, and of course, winning the season.
The spinoff season’s winners were Danny McCray and Sarah, who outlasted a tough field of competitors, challenging checkpoints, and difficult conditions to reach the top of a mountain in Patagonia.
While appearing on Rob Has a Podcast (below), Sarah got asked why she and Angela couldn’t seem to get on the same page as two strong competitors and push each other to the end.
“I was working with her. Angela and I were super close,” Sarah shared, adding, “Until Tyson [Apostol] and Cashay [Proudfoot] threw me into the elimination, and after that, it’s like, you know, where do we go from here?”
“I felt like me, Angela, Tyson, Ben [Driebergen], and Kyland [Young], we had a group that we called The Core…We all wanted to go to the end and have the strong people there, but you know, then they turned on me. So, I guess somehow it winds up like ‘Sarah not wanting to work with Angela or Tyson when you guys are the ones that turned on me,'” she said.
Sarah gives thoughts on Angela’s situation in final
The Challenge: USA final featured Angela’s surprising disqualification due to not attempting to finish an overnight checkpoint by herself. The task involved teammates transferring dirt from a large pile to an empty sandbox to retrieve bags that contained a code necessary to continue.
Since there were pairs, one person could work on the task, and the other was allowed to get rest in the tent. However, Angela was on her own for that portion of the final due to Ben’s injury situation during the last daily challenge of the season.
Production determined Ben’s injury was too severe for him to compete in the final, and he got sent home. Since the final involved one man and one woman randomly teamed up for each checkpoint, it meant one woman randomly worked alone in each one. Angela had that disadvantage for the overnight checkpoint.
Due to her deciding to go to sleep and conserve her energy, host TJ Lavin told Angela the following day that she was out of the final due to not even trying to complete the task.
Sarah got asked on the RHAP show how she felt about Angela deciding to opt out, and she seemed to have a strong stance that Angela “quit” when the rules for the checkpoint were clear.
“She actually didn’t say she was gonna opt out. She says, ‘I quit.’ Like, when you go, and you watch her, she goes in the tent they put the words at the bottom of her saying, ‘I quit,'” Sarah said.
“I think we all knew. There’s a sign that says the task at hand, and when she decided to opt out, I went and read the sign, and it says that you have to move this dirt in order to get these bags or the combination to unlock these bags, and you have to have those bags to continue. So I’m like, ‘Well, that’s like your key to start your car.’ You don’t get your key to start your car; your car ain’t going anywhere,” Sarah explained.
“Desi [Williams] and Enzo [Palumbo] didn’t get to opt out of the swim. Cayla [Platt] couldn’t just come in last on the food. She still had to eat it all,” Sarah added.
Angela’s DQ gave Sarah one less competitor to worry about defeating on the women’s side, and it was also her biggest rival throughout most of the season.
Danny also said he had no problem with how they decided to apply the rules in that situation, mentioning it helped him as it added more money to the pot for the winners.
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