Kaycee Clark is no stranger to competition, and the Big Brother and Challenge champion is setting her sights on the next best thing: the biggest sporting challenge on the planet.
“Flag football is going to be in the 2028 Olympics,” Clark, who played women’s tackle football professionally for nine years, tells Refinery29 over Zoom. “I’m kind of tiptoeing around it, but I’m going to get into the flag football world and see where that takes me. Maybe try out for the Olympics.”
Before the Games come to Los Angeles though, Clark is working on reclaiming the title of champion on MTV’s The Challenge. Billed as “Battle Of The Eras,” the new season, which premieres August 14, is the reality competition series’ 40th, and the anniversary brings 40 legends from past and present to see which Challenge era and competitor reign supreme.
This will be the first time Clark is able to size herself up against the best of the best from throughout the show’s history, and she’s excited. “I’ve never played a game with Rachel [Robinson]. I’ve never played a game with Cara [Maria Sorbello], never played a game with Emily [Schromm]. Mark Long, Derrick [Kosinski],” Clark says. “To be able to see their game styles and how they play the game, and be in the same house as them, is really cool.”
Clark, who’s in the Era 4 team alongside other newer faces like Olivia Kaiser, Josh Martinez, Horatio Gutierrez, Jr., and Nurys Mateo, is her own winning force. She’s been in every season since joining the flagship show in Season 35. (Against last year’s no-champ roster in “Battle For A New Champion,” she appeared as a Champion during the Chaos eliminations and won.) Clark has reached a final in each of her competitive berths, including the inaugural Challenge World Championship, except for one, and won “Spies, Lies, And Allies” on her third try. And as the show celebrates its milestone, she is in the middle of relishing her own: her engagement with fellow Challenger Nany González.
Ahead Clark dishes on wedding plans, how she navigates the stresses of the Challenge house, and more on her Olympic ambitions.
Refinery29: A belated congratulations on your engagement to Nany! How’s wedding planning going?
Kaycee Clark: We’re enjoying the engagement stage for sure. We’re thinking [a wedding] sometime maybe at the end of 2025. Honestly we’re in no rush, but we’re super excited.
Do you find it helpful to be on the same season as your significant other, or is it distracting and difficult?
I started playing the game with Nany, my first season [on “Total Madness”], and we created this relationship and this bond that we trust each other. Obviously we’re together — actually, we just hit our three-year anniversary last week — so playing this game with her and with anyone that you can absolutely trust and know that they’ll have your back makes the game so much easier. It’s stressful in [the Challenge house] so when you can have someone who feels like home, it’s everything. This is actually the second time I’ve done a show without [Nany], which is really really weird, but I would say I would rather play the game with her there. This season, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I wish babe was here to see all of this.’ It’s always a plus when she’s around.
This is The Challenge’s biggest season ever. What was it like playing with older alums who you haven’t really competed against before?
First of all, I’ve never been in a house with 39 other people. It’s a lot of people! And a lot of personalities and so much history within The Challenge world. I didn’t watch The Challenge before going on [the show], but now that I’ve been on for a while and have heard all the stories and everything that’s been going on throughout the years, I was excited to be playing this game with OGs that literally paved the way.
Who surprised you the most in terms of how they were on the show or the reputation they had versus how they are in person?
You know, I hear a lot of stories about Cara. Cara was uh, Cara was actually pretty cool. I was expecting a certain type of energy, but it was different so that was cool to see. Emily, I’ve heard, was a beast, and I’ve never played a game with her. She was really cool.
This season puts Challengers in different eras based on the season they joined the show, but most of you have relationships that extend beyond your era. How did you feel about being in Era 4 and was that something hard to navigate?
Being in Era 4 — the new kids on the block — I’m all about it. I get that they have the OGs, and it takes a lot of time for the Challenge fans to accept the newbies that come into this game from Survivor, Big Brother, Love Island. That’s understandable so I love that we are the newbies of the bunch. We also don’t have deep rooted history like the OGs do so we have a little bit of an advantage to not be stepping on each other’s toes and trying to one-up each other. [Era 4] has a Survivor champion, Big Brother champion, and Love Island champion so we’ve got different mindsets within this game but still within the same realm.
I feel like the women this season are incredible, and it almost feels more competitive than the men’s side. I would love your thoughts on that.
I love competing against the best of the best, and the women this season are stacked. Laurel [Stucky], Cara, Rachel, Tori [Deal] — there’s such a great handful of elite competitors when it comes to the women. It’s going to be a bloodbath, it’s going to be a battle.
What’s harder: winning Big Brother or winning The Challenge?
They’re both hard in their own ways. Big Brother was longer. The Challenge is more physical of course. But they’re both mentally and emotionally very challenging. The physical part is cool, whatever, but the mental part that people don’t get to see is intense.
What is your self-care when you’re in the Challenge house? How do you maintain your mental wellness?
To be able to stay level-headed and not freak out, I like to write and journal. Thankfully we’re able to bring a notebook in there and write our thoughts down. Also, I like to go outside first thing in the morning when everyone else is still asleep. It reminds you that you are in a game and what you’re doing this for. A lot of the time, you get so stuck in this game that it becomes your new normal. The first thing you think about is this game, and all throughout the day, 24/7 you’re thinking about this game. You go to sleep thinking about this game. As time goes on, it becomes your normal, and it’s sometimes so hard to think about the outside world so it’s really good to disconnect in that way. You don’t have a lot of privacy, you’re always mic’d up, you’ve always got cameras on you so [enjoy] the little things that you can do to remind you that it’s a game and keep your mind right.
I can imagine, you’re in this pressure cooker all the time with all these personalities that it’s hard to find your alone time too.
It’s really important to have people that you can talk to about the outside world. There’s some people you can talk to, and there’s some that you cannot. And it just really makes you feel like you’re at home. People would never understand unless they’re actually in the game.
What’s next for you?
I’m always wanting to find that next level. Am I gonna go on another competition show? I played women’s tackle football for nine years. Flag football is going to be in the 2028 Olympics [in Los Angeles]. I’m kind of tiptoeing around it, but I’m going to get into the flag football world and see where that takes me. Maybe try out for the Olympics.
Yes to Kaycee Clark in the Olympics! I am manifesting it.
I think that’s the next best thing! Competing at a high level in The Challenge, I’m like, ‘Wow, if I can get to the Olympics…’ You never know unless you try so we’ll see.
Challenge champion and Olympian. No one else is going to have that.
See, I’m trying to get that title! I’m trying to be a three-time champ! Big Brother, The Challenge, and the Olympics.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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