Challenge: Battle For A New Champion(Wed, Oct 25th, 8/7c)

The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion runner-up reveals what wasn't shown in the final

"I wish they would have shown it the way that it went down because it was way more dramatic," tells EW.
By Sydney Bucksbaum
Published on February 21, 2024

It would have been the perfect ending to her underdog story if Nurys Mateo won The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion, but, ironically, it was a puzzle that cost her the ultimate prize.

On the second half of the two-day final, Nurys pulled into the lead thanks to the final checkpoint that resembled the two eliminations she won earlier in the season. But then she got stuck on a Sudoku puzzle, allowing Emanuel Neagu to regain the lead and finish in first. Nurys ultimately crossed the finish line in second place.

"I luckily have had enough time to get over it," Nurys tells EW. "I believe everything happens for a reason and hopefully, this is just a push into the right direction if I ever go back again, and then I can just take all this and put it into the next one."

Below, Nurys breaks down why she lost to Emanuel, what wasn't shown on TV from the final, and more.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So what happened? Why aren't we talking about the underdog pulling out the win in the end?

NURYS MATEO: I've got to give credit to Emanuel regardless. He is a great competitor. It just sucks. I mean, I hate to blame it on the fact that I'm a woman, but I feel like that was overall a big downfall. I'm going up against a guy, there was never going to be a time that I or any of the other women would ever be able to be as fast or as strong. This is why I still give myself so much credit, because I did the exact same thing that a man had to do, carry the same exact weight, run same distance, swim the same distance, and I still got pretty close, which is nice, but I do think that it that was essentially a big downfall.

That's why I wanted it to be an all-girls final, because then it would have been 1,000 percent fair. And then if I would have came in second, I would have no excuse. Now, that is definitely my excuse, that I wasn't as fast or as strong as as a man, but that's okay.

What was it like for you, not only not having the all-women final happen but also having to fight against this massive alliance that was working against you so aggressively all season?

That's probably the hardest thing throughout the whole season. I kept telling myself and telling everyone, all I knew is that I wanted to make it to a final and I wanted to look left and look right and I wanted it to be my friends. I wanted it to be people who fought for their shot to be there. If I was going to lose to someone, I wanted it to be to the best, not to the layups. It sucked being there and looking left and right and knowing not only was it that it was people that skated by, people that didn't have to do anything to get there, but also none of my friends — and quite the opposite.

It's okay if people aren't your friends, but it was more rivals, your enemies, the people that have been trying to get you out consistently, the people that were against you, the people that lied, and all this other stuff. It did suck to turn my head and see Emanuel beside me, see Jay, see Berna and Colleen and Moriah, everyone who was consistently against me. It would have been one thing if I was here next to like a bunch of great competitors, people who fought, even like Big T fought and did a great job. If it was against people like that, I would have felt better, but it just sucked being next to them.

Emanuel dominated the first day but you really showed up on day two, so at what point did you realize you weren’t going to win?

Honestly, I was still very hopeful the entire time. Once I got to the last part where it was basically the same conquest elimination that I had already [done], I got super, super excited in that moment. I told myself when I got there that I won. No one's gonna beat me. This was set up for me, this was meant for me. I got a lot of flags really fast, the rhythm was there, the motivation was there, my heart was in it. I felt very confident, except for the ones where you have to balance the pegs. And then I got to the Sudoku thinking I saved it for last because I do Sudoku every single day — it's on my phone, I have books, and I really do them in pen all the time. I was like, "This is going to be a cakewalk." And then I got there and I realized being sleep deprived and food deprived, this is going to not work out for me. All the numbers were jumbled up, my brain just wasn't working.

I kept getting to the same exact part over and over again — I still remember I had two sixes in the same line and I'd have to restart. That happened to me about three times and I had to reset and then start all over. It was so discouraging, but I was kept telling myself don't give up, go to the next one, and maybe your brain will get refreshed and then come back. And it just wasn't working. It bothers me so much to know that it was because of the Sudoku because I really do those all the time.

The diving, you saw I couldn't even read the thing without crying. I instantly thought that was going to be my downfall. And the moment I got there and I dove down and I realized it was memorization, my strength of knowing how good my memorization skills are trumped being scared of the water. I actually was so proud of how fast I did it, how calm I stayed, I didn't panic. I was like, "If you just overcame one of your biggest fears, the rest of it should be a cakewalk." And then I got to the Sudoku and that was my downfall. You really never know what's going to be the turning point, either good or bad.

How far behind Emanuel were you when you crossed the finish line?

I'm not exactly sure. If you ask him, he likes to lie and say he was there an hour ahead. I don't think that's accurate. I would say 15-20 minutes or so. When he took off, I still had another thing to do and it didn't take me very long to do it. But I do know that he is essentially faster than me and I think it was about another two miles or so from where that puzzle was to the finish line. He could run a faster two miles than I could. But I don't think I was too far behind. I really think that I was right there.

The race for third also seemed close, so how long did it take Colleen and Corey to finish?

It was a decent amount of time to the time that Colleen got to us. I didn't realize until watching it and seeing that Corey was right there and he got the last flag before her and then he just couldn't get over the balance beam. Which was so, so disappointing, because I really would have preferred Corey to have gotten third, then Colleen. I was heartbroken for him to not place because of a balance beam, that really sucks. I think it was maybe like 45 minutes or so from the time that Colleen got to me and Emanuel, and Corey was right behind her, maybe like 5-10 minutes. And then we just had to wait for Berna to get there.

How long did it take Berna to finish?

[Laughs] We were waiting a decent amount of time.
Was there any portion of the final that wasn’t shown in the episodes? Any extra legs or checkpoints that you had to do?

The one thing from watching the episodes that was missed was the elimination that I did against Moriah. They show that elimination as if it was we were just putting the blocks in but that's actually not how it went down, and I wish they would have shown it the way that it went down because it was way more dramatic. We actually had a clue on how to do that puzzle across the island. So when TJ blows his horn you can either work on the puzzle or you can take off and run to get the clue. And the moment TJ rang the horn, Moriah took off.

I do pretty good at puzzles, so I stayed to work on the puzzle. And it's not working out, and Moriah gets back, and my heart sunk because I thought I just lost it because I should have ran. So she got there and I was like, "I gotta go," so I took off and it was so dark and it was a decent run. I sprinted to get to the clue. And it was absolutely no help! I just ran over here for no reason.

As I'm running back, I think I just lost because she's had a couple minutes while you just ran. I think I'm heading home. And then I got back to the puzzle and she was still working on it. I still have a chance. We're kind of just going at it for about a minute or so and all of a sudden my brain did the puzzle without me actually moving the pieces and I figured it out. It was huge and I wish they would have shown it that way. Last season, I only went into elimination once and I lost. I was like, "You have to redeem yourself." It's crazy to think that now my elimination record is three-one, and I technically eliminated five people.