"It just sucks": The Challenge season 39 runner-up Nurys Mateo reflects on finale

The Challenge season 39 crowned Emanuel Neagu its ultimate winner in the second part of the finale released on Wednesday, February 21. Titled Only One Gets The Crown, episode 19 focused on the finalists Berna Canbeldek, Colleen Schneider, Corey Lay, Emanuel Neagu, and Nurys Mateo battling it out to win the last challenge.

While Nurys Mateo came close to crossing the finish line, she lost time solving a Sudoku puzzle, thereby allowing Emaneul Neagu to gain momentum. Ultimately, she finished second place in the hit MTV competition series. After The Challenge season 39 came to an end, Nurys Mateo reflected on the final task that, according to her, gave men the advantage over women.

During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Nurys noted:

“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.”

She continued:

"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."

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The Challenge season 39 runner-up Nurys Mateo says she wanted an all-girls finale

When Nurys got to the last part of the finale, she felt “super excited” knowing the challenge was the same one from her conquest elimination round, which she had performed and won in the past. She felt confident, but things took a turn for worse when Nurys got to the Sudoku puzzle.

Nurys revealed she played the game every single day as it is on her phone, and even has books where she solves them in pen. The reality star felt it was a “cakewalk” before another realization hit:

“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.”

Nurys revealed that most of the people in the finale were less friends and more rivals and enemies to her. She claimed it was the same people who tried consistently to get her out and lied to her. Fans have previously seen Nurys getting betrayed by her best friend Olivia Kaiser in the season.

She was pitted against her boyfriend Horacio Gutiérrez Jr and close friend Kyland Young during the conquest elimination round. Nurys defeated them both and returned to the main house, well aware she couldn’t trust anyone. Notably, six players were eliminated during the ‘Conquest’ phase and four of them were sent home by Nurys alone.

The runner-up said in the interview that she wished for an all-girls final because then she wouldn’t have been left with an excuse. She continued:

“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.”

The Challenge season 39 finale saw Colleen gaining third place while Corey and Berna finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

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The Challenge season 39 finale is available to stream on MTV.