3 Seasons: Inferno 2, Gauntlet 2 (Win), The Duel (Win)

0–1 Elimination Record

19 Challenge Wins

Dailies: 9.5/10

Eliminations: 8.5/10

Finals: 8.5/10

Politics: 8/10

If these rankings were about who was the best competitor at their peak, you could argue that Jodi should be in the top five. The first female individual winner and one of just seven females to win an individual season along with Rachel, Laurel, Ashley, Camila, Cara Maria and Jenny, Jodi was the total package as a competitor.

Although she had a disappointing rookie season on Inferno II, getting flustered and falling to Veronica in the That’s a Wrap elimination, she was still one of the top competitors on the Good Guys team.

On Gauntlet 2 she was again one of the best girls on the Rookie team, helping them win nine out of 15 missions and never going into elimination.

But the reason Jodi makes the top 20 is for her dominant season on The Duel.

Head and shoulders above the rest of the cast (to be fair it was a very weak field — her biggest competition was Diem, Svetlana and Kina), Jodi won seven missions throughout the season, including five on girls elimination days to guarantee herself safety. No other girl won more than three missions. In the final, she was able to defeat Svetlana to earn her second championship.

Jodi is by far the hardest person for me to assess in these rankings. I scored her a 8.5 in eliminations and 8.5 finals, but those are more projections since she was only in one elimination and she won two of the easiest finals of all time.

Politically, she didn’t really have to do anything on her first two seasons. The opposing team selected nominations on Inferno II (although Jodi was lambasted by the Bad Asses for switching the nomination to Veronica when she was selected), and on Gauntlet 2 she wasn’t called out by her Road Rules: X-Treme castmate Kina.

On The Duel she was in a strong alliance with Kina/Robin/Diem and Derrick/Brad/CT/Evan, but she stayed out of elimination by winning the missions and being too fearsome of a competitor to be called out.

I can see valid reasons why Jodi should be higher than this placement, and I can see arguments why she should be lower. The argument for placing Jodi higher would be that she was more dominant as a competitor than many of the girls that are ranked above her.

I could also see the argument that someone like Ashley should be ranked ahead of Jodi because she has victories in an individual and a partner format, whereas Jodi only has one great win (I don’t consider winning The Gauntlet 2 an impressive victory when just three out of the 16 finalists saw an elimination and it had the easiest final of all time, despite Jodi being one of the top females on the season). Ashley also played much more of a political game than Jodi ever needed to and faced tougher competition.

It’s a shame we didn’t see Jodi on more seasons to see how she stacked up against better competitors like Evelyn (she bizarrely was never called to be on the show again after The Duel), but there’s no doubt she’s one of the best competitors the show has ever seen.

Rankings

25. Tonya Cooley

24. Holly Shand

23. Ruthie Alcaide

22. Theresa Gonzalez

21. Jenna Compono

20. Jillian Zobroski

19. Diem Brown

18. Tori Deal

17. Dee Nguyen

16. Kam Williams

15. Jenn Grijalva

14. Tori Hall

13. Jodi Weatherton

12. Ashley Mitchell

11. Veronica Portillo

10. Paula Meronek

9. Susie Meister

8. Coral Smith

7. Rachel Robinson

6. Sarah Rice

5. Camila Nakagawa

4. Emily Schromm

3. Cara Maria Sorbello

2. Evelyn Smith