‘The Challenge: All Stars’ Season 2: Jonna Mannion Left With 200 Bug Bites and a Lost Toenail
[Spoiler alert: The Challenge: All Stars Season 2 spoilers ahead regarding the final and the winners of the season.]
MTV’s The Challenge fans tuned into Paramount+’s spinoff, The Challenge: All Stars. The Challenge: All Stars Season 2 winners have officially been crowned after another brutal final. The two-day final involved running through horrific heat, dealing with dehydration and lack of sustenance, and performing well in memory games on little to no sleep. And one of The Challenge: All Stars winners talked about her grueling experience with bug bites and broken toenails.
‘The Challenge: All Stars’ Season 2 spoilers: Jonna Mannion and MJ Garrett took home the grand prize
The Challenge: All Stars Season 2 looked particularly grueling for the cast — but Jonna Mannion and MJ Garrett managed to pull through with the win. They began the final with an overnight endurance challenge, and they followed that up with three additional challenges that tested them physically and mentally. Finally, they went through an eating challenge and finished the competition with another memory game.
“It’s crazy because coming back for All Stars, the first season I just wanted to make a final because after doing five seasons I’d never been there,” Jonna told Entertainment Weekly. “So, now there was one thing left to do, and that’s win, so it was a pretty big accomplishment. I’m so happy.”
Garrett expressed how happy he was to win as well, but he also said it was way harder than it looked on TV. “What they really don’t show of that final run is truly how exhausted we were,” he noted. “You can kind of tell that we had been running all day and logged anywhere I think between 50 and 60 miles before that last little sprint.”
Jonna Mannion said she walked away from the final with ‘200 bug bites’
Jonny Mannion and MJ Garrett talked to Tori Deal and Aneesa Ferreira about The Challenge: All Stars Season 2 final via MTV’s Official Challenge Podcast. The winners discussed more of their grueling experiences in the jungle.
“It was 110 degrees,” Jonna said. “And we were in the middle of the jungle. I left there … I had 200 bug bites. I’m not even kidding you. It’s from the memory board part of it. And also, [I] lost a toenail.”
“Half of my job that day was getting the bugs off of Jonna’s back,” MJ added. “You would see tarantulas walking over the path. We saw monkeys throwing sh*t at us. … That’s what people don’t understand about these finals. They’re so long that there’s a lot of things that production cannot prevent.”
MJ Garrett went through severe dehydration during the final
Not only did Jonna Mannion and MJ Garrett deal with bugs, but MJ said he went through severe dehydration while running The Challenge: All Stars Season 2 final.
“My body, probably after the first checkpoint, started shutting down,” MJ explained to the podcast. He noted he stopped drinking water, as he wanted to preserve the water he had in his pack. Instead, he chose to consume electrolyte packs, but that caused him major issues with his body.
“I gave up on water because in my dumb mind at the time, I was thinking, well, I need to retain water. I need to retain liquids, because it’s all coming out of me, let me get this sodium in,” he admitted. “Like, every muscle — my triceps, my calf … — were done.”
Hopefully, MJ and Jonna learned valuable lessons for the next season. We hope to see them compete again as part of The Challenge: All Stars Season 3 cast.
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