Kaycee Clark isn’t any stranger to competitors, and the Large Brother and Problem champion is setting her sights on the following neatest thing: the largest sporting problem on the planet.
“Flag soccer goes to be within the 2028 Olympics,” Clark, who performed girls’s deal with soccer professionally for 9 years, tells Refinery29 over Zoom. “I’m type of tiptoeing round it, however I’m going to get into the flag soccer world and see the place that takes me. Perhaps check out for the Olympics.”
Earlier than the Video games come to Los Angeles although, Clark is engaged on reclaiming the title of champion on MTV’s The Problem. Billed as “Battle Of The Eras,” the brand new season, which premieres August 14, is the truth competitors sequence’ fortieth, and the anniversary brings 40 legends from previous and current to see which Problem period and competitor reign supreme.
This would be the first time Clark is ready to dimension herself up towards the most effective of the most effective from all through the present’s historical past, and he or she’s excited. “I’ve by no means performed a recreation with Rachel [Robinson]. I’ve by no means performed a recreation with Cara [Maria Sorbello], by no means performed a recreation with Emily [Schromm]. Mark Lengthy, Derrick [Kosinski],” Clark says. “To have the ability to see their recreation kinds and the way they play the sport, and be in the identical home as them, is de facto cool.”
Clark, who’s within the Period 4 crew alongside different newer faces like Olivia Kaiser, Josh Martinez, Horatio Gutierrez, Jr., and Nurys Mateo, is her personal profitable pressure. She’s been in each season since becoming a member of the flagship present in Season 35. (Towards final 12 months’s no-champ roster in “Battle For A New Champion,” she appeared as a Champion throughout the Chaos eliminations and received.) Clark has reached a closing in every of her aggressive berths, together with the inaugural Problem World Championship, apart from one, and received “Spies, Lies, And Allies” on her third attempt. And because the present celebrates its milestone, she is in the course of relishing her personal: her engagement with fellow Challenger Nany González.
Forward Clark dishes on marriage ceremony plans, how she navigates the stresses of the Problem home, and extra on her Olympic ambitions.
Refinery29: A belated congratulations in your engagement to Nany! How’s marriage ceremony planning going?
Kaycee Clark: We’re having fun with the engagement stage for certain. We’re pondering [a wedding] someday perhaps on the finish of 2025. Actually we’re in no rush, however we’re tremendous excited.
Do you discover it useful to be on the identical season as your important different, or is it distracting and tough?
I began enjoying the sport with Nany, my first season [on “Total Madness”], and we created this relationship and this bond that we belief one another. Clearly we’re collectively — truly, we simply hit our three-year anniversary final week — so enjoying this recreation along with her and with anybody that you would be able to completely belief and know that they’ll have your again makes the sport a lot simpler. It’s annoying in [the Challenge house] so when you’ll be able to have somebody who appears like house, it’s all the things. That is truly the second time I’ve executed a present with out [Nany], which is de facto actually bizarre, however I’d say I’d reasonably play the sport along with her there. This season, I used to be like, ‘Oh my gosh, I want babe was right here to see all of this.’ It’s all the time a plus when she’s round.
That is The Problem’s greatest season ever. What was it like enjoying with older alums who you haven’t actually competed towards earlier than?
To begin with, I’ve by no means been in a home with 39 different folks. It’s lots of people! And loads of personalities and a lot historical past inside The Problem world. I didn’t watch The Problem earlier than occurring [the show], however now that I’ve been on for some time and have heard all of the tales and all the things that’s been occurring all through the years, I used to be excited to be enjoying this recreation with OGs that actually paved the way in which.
Who stunned you essentially the most by way of how they had been on the present or the fame they’d versus how they’re in particular person?
You realize, I hear loads of tales about Cara. Cara was uh, Cara was truly fairly cool. I used to be anticipating a sure sort of power, nevertheless it was completely different in order that was cool to see. Emily, I’ve heard, was a beast, and I’ve by no means performed a recreation along with her. She was actually cool.
This season places Challengers in several eras primarily based on the season they joined the present, however most of you have got relationships that stretch past your period. How did you’re feeling about being in Period 4 and was that one thing laborious to navigate?
Being in Period 4 — the brand new children on the block — I’m all about it. I get that they’ve the OGs, and it takes loads of time for the Problem followers to just accept the newbies that come into this recreation from Survivor, Large Brother, Love Island. That’s comprehensible so I really like that we’re the newbies of the bunch. We additionally don’t have deep rooted historical past just like the OGs achieve this we’ve got somewhat little bit of a bonus to not be stepping on one another’s toes and attempting to one-up one another. [Era 4] has a Survivor champion, Large Brother champion, and Love Island champion so we’ve acquired completely different mindsets inside this recreation however nonetheless throughout the similar realm.
I really feel like the ladies this season are unbelievable, and it nearly feels extra aggressive than the boys’s facet. I’d love your ideas on that.
I really like competing towards the most effective of the most effective, and the ladies this season are stacked. Laurel [Stucky], Cara, Rachel, Tori [Deal] — there’s such an important handful of elite opponents in the case of the ladies. It’s going to be a massacre, it’s going to be a battle.
What’s tougher: profitable Large Brother or profitable The Problem?
They’re each laborious in their very own methods. Large Brother was longer. The Problem is extra bodily after all. However they’re each mentally and emotionally very difficult. The bodily half is cool, no matter, however the psychological half that individuals don’t get to see is intense.
What’s your self-care while you’re within the Problem home? How do you preserve your psychological wellness?
To have the ability to keep level-headed and never freak out, I wish to write and journal. Fortunately we’re in a position to deliver a pocket book in there and write our ideas down. Additionally, I wish to go exterior very first thing within the morning when everybody else remains to be asleep. It reminds you that you’re in a recreation and what you’re doing this for. Loads of the time, you get so caught on this recreation that it turns into your new regular. The very first thing you consider is that this recreation, and all all through the day, 24/7 you’re occupied with this recreation. You fall asleep occupied with this recreation. As time goes on, it turns into your regular, and it’s typically so laborious to consider the surface world so it’s actually good to disconnect in that method. You don’t have loads of privateness, you’re all the time mic’d up, you’ve all the time acquired cameras on you so [enjoy] the little issues that you are able to do to remind you that it’s a recreation and hold your thoughts proper.
I can think about, you’re on this strain cooker on a regular basis with all these personalities that it’s laborious to seek out your alone time too.
It’s actually vital to have folks that you would be able to speak to in regards to the exterior world. There’s some folks you’ll be able to speak to, and there’s some that you just can not. And it simply actually makes you’re feeling such as you’re at house. Individuals would by no means perceive except they’re truly within the recreation.
What’s subsequent for you?
I’m all the time wanting to seek out that subsequent stage. Am I gonna go on one other competitors present? I performed girls’s deal with soccer for 9 years. Flag soccer goes to be within the 2028 Olympics [in Los Angeles]. I’m type of tiptoeing round it, however I’m going to get into the flag soccer world and see the place that takes me. Perhaps check out for the Olympics.
Sure to Kaycee Clark within the Olympics! I’m manifesting it.
I feel that’s the following neatest thing! Competing at a excessive stage in The Problem, I’m like, ‘Wow, if I can get to the Olympics…’ You by no means know except you attempt so we’ll see.
Problem champion and Olympian. Nobody else goes to have that.
See, I’m attempting to get that title! I’m attempting to be a three-time champ! Large Brother, The Problem, and the Olympics.
This interview has been edited and condensed for readability.
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