Jodi Weatherton (‘The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras’) on that canoeing nightmare and her private apology to Brad: ‘It was the worst’ [WATCH]
Jodi Weatherton didn’t have the season she hoped for on “The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras.” Feeling more physically and mentally prepared than ever, the two-time champ (“The Guantlet 2” and “The Duel”) saw her dreams of a third victory go up in smoke after a team canoeing debacle sent her straight into elimination. There, the Era 1 veteran lost a close battle to Era 3’s Averey Tressler in “One Step At A Time,” ending Jodi’s season early.
After taking a 27-season hiatus from the flagship competition, Jodi explains, “Coming back after having such an incredible season on ‘All Stars 2’ after being gone for so long and then having a decent season on ‘World Championships,’ I was really hopeful that I was going to do well. Leaving a champion on the flagship in 2006 and then coming back and having such a pathetic performance, that really made me sad.” Watch the full video interview above.
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What ultimately led to Jodi being sent into elimination was her role as Era 1’s team captain during the daily challenge. It wasn’t a role she wanted, but she reveals her trivia knowledge of all 40 seasons made her team reliant on her. Unfortunately, she didn’t realize canoeing would sink their hopes of winning.
“We were in for two seconds and we were on the side of the river. I genuinely thought Brad [Fiorenza] was throwing the challenge. It was so bad. We were in the river, barely, we were in the bank more. I broke an oar trying to push us off. I jumped out of the boat to pull us out at one point because we had gone up so hard that the boat cracked. We were all swearing at each other, yelling at each other. It was the worst.”
Jodi says she spoke so poorly of Brad after the canoeing nightmare that she had to call him to apologize. “The only explanation [for our poor performance] was that whoever was steering the boat was really sucking. How else could we be in the bank?…I’ve had conversations with him since being off the show. I called to say, ‘Hey, I said all this nasty stuff in my interview about you. I don’t know what they’re going to show. I basically insinuated that you threw the challenge.’ I don’t think they aired any of it anyways, but as a friend I just wanted him to know I said these horrible things.”
Jodi says she’s not ready to throw in the towel on “The Challenge” yet, stating as a former champion this can’t be the way her career ends. When asked who she’d love to be paired up with in a future season she said her top choice among the men would be Jordan Wiseley and her first female draft pick would be Jenny West.
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