Don’t Mess with this Zoomer, Survivors!

She’s a lean, keen, challenge-winning machine! If the contestants on this season’s Survivor: Nicaragua have learned one thing, it’s not to underestimate 56-year-old dog trainer Jane Bright from North Carolina. Jane beat out her eight competitors in last night’s Immunity Challenge. It came down to a head-on-head with 24-year-old Chase Rice—arguably the most athletic male left on the show. The two held their body weight by their hands, clenched around a knotted rope, while dangling over a pool of murky water. Chase warned Jane he was feeling “totally secure.” Jane almost took a dive, but host Jeff Probst convinced her to call the bluff. Minutes later, Chase was swimming away in defeat. As Probst safely placed the Immunity necklace on Jane, she chuckled and said, “I’m glad I lift 80 pound dogs.”

Two weeks ago, the challenge rewarded two individual Immunity necklaces—one for the winner of each sex. Jane dominated the other women and got the necklace, but decided to keep on going to prove she could also defeat 48-year-old arch-enemy, Marty Piombo. And she did. “I may be little, I may be small, but there ain’t no way in hell that in an individual challenge, you will beat me,” Jane said to the camera (directed at Marty).

This Survivor competitor represents her Zoomer demographic with strength and sassiness. Probst shows his admiration for Jane in his blog: “Jane has lived a hard life… But if you want somebody in that foxhole with you, Jane’s not a bad choice.” Especially if she brings her shot gun.

– Charlotte Bumstead