‘The Challenge’: Jujuy Talks Competing on the American Series, Addresses a Big Romance Rumor

The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion brought in competitors from all across the world so that they could attempt to earn their first championship title. Alas, Jujuy Jimenez was the only competitor that was brought over from one of the show’s international spinoffs, The Challenge: Argentina. While Jujuy, whose first language is Spanish, did struggle with the language barrier, she was able to show the audience her bright, authentic self and make some bonds with her fellow competitors along the way. Still, she found herself in the elimination after getting chosen to compete by Ravyn Rochelle and was subsequently sent home. After her experience on The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion, Jujuy spoke with PopCulture.com to describe what it was like to compete and dispel one particular romance rumor. 

On top of navigating the game itself on The Challenge, Jujuy had to do so with the aforementioned language barrier. Thanks to some help from her fellow competitors, such as Horacio Gutierrez, and the production team, she was able to understand the challenges that she was tasked with. However, she believes that her strategic game definitely suffered because she wasn’t able to fully communicate with the other challengers at times. 

With this in mind, she was grateful that she had someone like Horacio that she could lean on in the house and actually be herself with. Although, their friendship did lead to some rumors that they may have been romantically involved. As Jujuy explained, they were simply friends. But, she can see why some may have gotten the wrong idea about their relationship given their close bond in the house.

“I can understand that all the people in the house who feel that or think about that, like me and Horacio, because we were all the time together,” Jujuy said. “We did the training, the breakfast time, everything we did together. But, it’s because he was the only person that I think he could meet me, the real Jujuy, you know what I mean? When you have to be in another language, you are not your 100% [self]. The jokes, all these things that you can talk with people, it’s not the same way that you talk in your language. So I think it may be because of that.”

Going forward, Jujuy wants to “learn a little bit more about the game” so that she can thrive on The Challenge in every aspect. She added that she thinks she would have been able to “stay longer in the house” had she been able to have those strategic conversations with the other competitors. Even though this affected her game this time around, she did vow that she wants to “keep studying English” so that she can “better” her game for the future.

The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion airs on Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. ET on MTV. Stay tuned to PopCulture.com for Challenge coverage all throughout Season 39.