If you look at Theresa’s Challenge stats, she really does not seem like a great competitor on paper. She was a career 2–6 in eliminations, only made one final, and technically got eliminated from every season she appeared on. However, if you watched the show, especially in Theresa’s final two seasons, you saw an elite competitor who had all the skills to become a multi-time champion. Theresa is tall with long legs, an elite swimmer, has incredible cardio, great speed, held great technical skill as an athlete, and a memory better than Sarah Rice.

Why did Theresa fail so epicly in her first four seasons? It’s a mix of bad partners, bad luck, and her inability to compete when nervous. However, once she was able to compete as an individual on Free Agents, Theresa began to actively play the game, do well in challenges, and made it to the final four. Despite being inferior to Laurel as an overall competitor, the final was Theresa’s opportunity to shine as she is a much better runner than Laurel. However, a last minute elimination twist forced Theresa to face Laurel in a three tiered puzzle where Laurel ultimately came out on top.

Had the game played out normally, either Nany or Devyn would have been the final player eliminated and Theresa would have had a good shot at winning. Nany was not too far behind Laurel in the final, and even though Nany is a nicer human than Theresa, Theresa is better than Nany at most competitive aspects of the Challenge.

9 Paulie Calafiore — War of the Worlds

Last season, Paulie wrecked the game alongside girlfriend Cara Maria. While they had friendships in the house, they were generally an alliance of two. They were able to sustain themselves by dominating the daily challenges. Paulie found himself on the winning side of 7 out of 13 daily challenge. 3 as a pair with Ninja, and 4 times as an individual. He proved he was good with cardio, puzzles, speed, swimming, and everything in-between. With the final in the grasp of his hands, Paulie choked.

Due to the way Cara and Paulie present their relationship, they create more enemies than fans. It’s easy to root against them, but watching Paulie continually falls into the water hurt like hell. As a human being, you could tell making the final together was their goal and now it’s not happening. The good thing is, it humbled Paulie and now they have an incredibly secure and not problematic relationship…

8 Brad Fiorenza — Battle of the Sexes 2