The Greatest Female Players in Challenge History: #5- Sarah Rice
9 Seasons: The Ruins (Final), Fresh Meat II, Cutthroat (2nd place) Rivals, Battle of the Exes, Battle of the Seasons (3rd place), Rivals II, Battle of the Exes II (Win), Rivals III (Win)
Final Efficiency: 5/7 (Excluding Exes 1 and Rivals II) (71.4%)
Win Efficiency: 2/7 (28.6%)
16 Mission Wins, Elimination Record: 6–2
Partner Missions: 9/31 (29%)
Average Times Voted In Per Season: .71
Seasons Making Final Going Into Minimum Amount of Elims: 1
There might not be a better all-around female in Challenge history than Sarah.
I don’t think anyone could have predicted that the emo chick from Real World: Brooklyn would become one of the best competitors ever, but she proved from her rookie season that she would be a force to be reckoned with.
Placed on the comically overmatched Challengers team on The Ruins, Sarah took out a pair of Champions in Katie and Johanna in eliminations and was the last player standing on her team along with KellyAnne. They came shockingly close to knocking off the Champions in the final, but couldn’t complete the final puzzle in time to pull off the upset.
On Fresh Meat II, Sarah found herself on the wrong side of the Kenny vs. Wes battle, pledging allegiance to Mr. Beautiful. Sarah/Vinny were pitted against Kenny/Laurel in the second elimination, where Sarah lost the exile.
Sarah fit in perfectly on the grey team on Cutthroat, undoubtedly the weirdest group of personalities on a team in Challenge history. She was the second-best woman on the team behind Laurel and the only woman on her team to never go into elimination.
But she couldn’t complete the final due to dehydration, and her and Abram’s collapse led to the grey team losing to the red team in the final.
Sarah’s string of bad partners began on Rivals when she was matched with Katelynn, one of the worst competitors in Challenge history. They went into the third jungle after losing the Against the Current mission. Sarah’s cockiness came back to bite her in the jungle, as she lost the puzzle to Jonna/Jasmine.
Her bad luck continued on Battle of the Exes. She was never going to have a great chance to win the season with Vinny (although they did win the second mission), but any chances came to an end when Vinny was disqualified for pulling down Mandi’s top.
Team Brooklyn started Battle of the Seasons on the wrong side of the numbers, as the veterans on the season were outmanned. Despite Sarah’s relationship with Alton, Brooklyn was thrown into the third elimination against Fresh Meat, where Sarah/Chet beat Cara/Brandon in Knot So Fast.
Sarah and Chet went in again two missions later, this time taking out Preston/McKenzie in Balls Out.
After Brooklyn was targeted for most of the first half of the game, they shifted more into power, winning two daily challenges and never going into elimination again.
But Sarah’s fatal flaw on the season was not cutting bait with Devyn/JD. If it were just Sarah and Chet running the final, there’s a good chance they would have beat San Diego, but instead they placed third due to Devyn holding them back.
Sarah’s bad partner luck continued on Rivals II, when she was paired with Trishelle. After an ugly fight with Aneesa, Trishelle quit, sending Sarah home with her.
Finally Sarah was given a worthy partner when she was paired with Jordan on Exes II. The self-proclaimed Wonder Twins (a bit of a strange nickname given that they made out on Rivals II) were the best team of the season, winning the Power Couple three times and defeating Zach/Jonna in the Hammer it Home elimination.
Sarah also played an excellent political game on Exes II. She perfectly played both sides between Wes and Bananas in the first half of the game, jumped ship from Wes when Bananas came back into the game, then made the smart, cutthroat move of sending Bananas/Nany into the final elimination.
The move paid off as they were sent home by Leroy/Theresa, and Sarah picked up her first victory in the final.
Sarah’s final season was also her most dominant. Sarah and Bananas were head and shoulders above the rest of the cast, winning four of the eight missions and beating Dario/Nicole in the final elimination.
We all know what happened next — Bananas/Sarah won the final, and Johnny stole Sarah’s share of $275,000.
In a twisted way, it was a fitting end to Sarah’s career. One of the most unlucky competitors in the history of the show who had experienced so much heartbreak over the years was dealt one final blow, causing her to swear off The Challenge for good.
I don’t really think there’s much of an argument against Sarah not being in the top six females of all time. She has the second-most finals appearances of any female with five, and in nine seasons her only real losses (not counting when her partners were disqualified) were to the powerhouse team of Kenny/Laurel on Fresh Meat II and the puzzle to Jonna/Jasmine on Rivals.
While she was merely above-average physically (although she’s one of the greatest swimmers in the history of the show), mentally she was excellent.
She’s a self-titled puzzle queen, and she lived up to the reputation (yes, she lost the puzzle to Jonna/Jasmine, but she came through in so many missions and finals that she more than redeemed herself).
Sarah also was a great political player, almost always finding herself in the most dominant alliances and playing one of the best political games of all time on Exes II.
Sarah was the total package, and despite her run of bad luck throughout her career she finished it as inarguably one of the greatest females in the history of the show.
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