During The Challenge: Ride or Dies final, many viewers were rooting hard for the rookie team of Olivia Kaiser and Horacio Gutierrez, who had an impressive debut on MTV’s show.
As they looked to contend with the veteran teams that also reached the final, misfortune struck, with Olivia suffering not one but two injuries.
The first occurred during a station where competitors had to toss bolas- colored balls connected by a string, onto vertical bars positioned across a field from them.
During one toss, Olivia’s finger got caught on the carabiner and ripped open, resulting in gushing blood and her needing medical attention.
While she continued with a bandage on the injury, another one hit her later and was much worse. During a checkpoint where competitors had to shoot golf balls at targets using a large slingshot, her shot backfired, with the ball striking her in the face.
That required that she get checked out again by medics. However, this time she was taken away in an ambulance, and her teammate Horacio was told she couldn’t continue, meaning they were officially disqualified from the final.
After a well-played season, it was a rough moment for the rookies. Olivia recently spoke more about her injury, including what happened and how it felt watching it back.
Olivia Kaiser opens up about injuries in Ride or Dies final
Olivia appeared on MTV’s Official Challenge Podcast episode after MTV’s Ride or Dies Episode 17 and gave more insight into her difficult injury that cost her and Horacio their chance at a million dollars.
“I make jokes about a lot of things. It’s my coping mechanism to handle situations, but this one, it really got me. I was like, ‘Holy- like put the knife in and twist,'” Olivia said of rewatching her injury play out in the episode.
“I don’t really cry until I get told I can no longer continue…so yeah, it definitely brings me back to a very vulnerable feeling. Very sad moment. And that’s just not how I live my life, and it’s very weird. So I just feel very weird about the whole scene,” she said on the podcast.
The Love Island USA 3 winner joked that it felt like “this final didn’t really want me” and added that her finger injury “hurt so much worse” than when she injured her face.
Part of that was due to the tasks the competitors had to endure after tossing the bolas, including drinking pitchers full of a disgusting drink with fish guts and transporting heavy tires to a checkpoint to stack them. Olivia even mentioned her throat started to swell during the fish guts drink, and she was worried she might be allergic.
Olivia Kaiser says she broke her face during The Challenge final
With Olivia’s finger already hurting, she said it became full of junk from the other tasks, so she had to stop at one point during the slingshot checkpoint and get it cleaned out with a strong antiseptic.
She said most people know what it’s like to get a bit of antiseptic that stings on a minor cut, but this “hurt so bad” to the point she was screaming after getting her finger treated.
However, she did her best to get it together and tried to aim the slingshot, but realized it was difficult due to not having the use of her finger to aim. She eventually decided to go for it because she was taking too long. She also said she noticed out of the corner of her eye that the slingshot was a bit twisted.
“It happened so fast, you guys, and I mean, I got rocked,” she said of the moment the slingshot backfired and the ball struck her face.
“We haven’t talked about it, but my face did end up breaking in five places. So I broke my nose. I also broke my optical bone behind my eyeball, and I broke my skull. It cracked all the way up to my hairline,” Olivia said, admitting she was concerned over her face because it’s part of her “brand.”
She also said she thought she might be good to go the next day after getting checked out and that Horacio would’ve been able to continue. That wasn’t the case, as TJ Lavin informed him they were both done.
Olivia said she still feels a bit of “self-blame” even though what happened to her and Horacio really wasn’t her fault.
Despite the injury and getting medically disqualified from the final, Olivia still found humor and positivity in what happened, as it could’ve been much worse.
“The fact that it hit me directly in the middle of my eyes shows how good of a shot I am,” she joked.
The Challenge: Ride or Dies airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.