“He’s not afraid to get hit” – The Challenge 41’s Cara Maria Sorbello explains why she chose her teammate

Season 41 of The Challenge, titled Vets and New Threats, is all set to premiere on MTV on Wednesday, July 30, at 8/7c. This season will pair veteran players with rookies in a format that mirrors previous seasons, such as Fresh Meat and War of the Worlds.

Among the returning veterans is two-time winner and ten-time finalist Cara Maria Sorbello, who has teamed up with Love Island UK Season 7’s Jake Cornish. Speaking to TVLine ahead of the premiere, Sorbello explained her reasoning for picking Jake, saying:

“This is pretty early on [when] we get picked by our partners, so there’s not anything really that I know about my partner. But taking a look around at all the other guys, I feel like he’s pretty well built. I know he’s a boxer, so I know he’s got endurance and he’s not afraid to get hit. So, I feel like I’m with a good partner for sure.”

The Challenge: Why Cara Maria Sorbello picked Jake Cornish as her partner

Cara Maria Sorbello, who is returning to The Challenge for its 41st season, selected Jake Cornish as her teammate after completing an initial challenge that involved hiking a mountain with an elevation of 5,479 feet. The teams were formed based on the order of finish, with male-female pairs created from the available contestants.

Although Sorbello didn’t have any prior knowledge about Jake, she relied on her first impressions of his physical abilities and athletic background. In her interview with TVLine, Sorbello said she was influenced by Jake’s build and his experience as a boxer. She mentioned that she didn’t really know anything about her partner, but after observing the other competitors, she felt Jake was well-built.

Sorbello also noted that his background in boxing gave her the sense that he had endurance and wasn’t afraid to take a hit. She indicated that Jake’s physical conditioning and toughness made her confident that he would be a strong and dependable teammate in the high-pressure environment of The Challenge.

More about The Challenge 41 contestants

The Challenge 41: Vets and New Threats continues the long-running tradition of pairing experienced veterans with new competitors in intense physical and mental competitions. This season brings a format that involves 16 veteran players and a group of rookies, many of whom are making their first appearance on The Challenge.

The series has evolved from its original format featuring The Real World and Road Rules cast members to include participants from global reality TV franchises, including Love Island, The Amazing Race, and Survivor. Cara Maria Sorbello is not the only veteran with a notable rookie partner this season.

Johnny Bananas has teamed up with Survivor champion Dee Valladares. Ashley “Millionaire” Mitchell is paired with a former WWE superstar, and Aviv Melmed has joined forces with Yeremi Hykel from The Amazing Race. Each team is competing for a significant cash prize, and the competition is expected to be intense across both physical challenges and strategic gameplay.

Sorbello emphasized that this dynamic benefits the veterans.

“Pairing up a new person [with] a vet actually makes things a whole lot easier because the new people, they don’t have any history,” she told TVLine. “They don’t really know each other. There’s no background or politics when it comes to the new kids, so we’re really just playing a vet game with the assistance of the new kids.”

In evaluating her competition, Sorbello pointed to one rookie who immediately caught her attention. She said that when looking at the lineup of women, her eyes were drawn to Leka, a competitor from Canada’s Ultimate Challenge.

Sorbello thought Leka appeared to be a potentially formidable opponent and described her as someone who looked like she could be an intense competitor, built for destruction. She also noted that the rookies were not only athletic but physically impressive.

“Obviously the first thing that jumped out to me was that the girls were stunning and athletic,” she told TVLine. “So the women jumped out to me right off the rip.”

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Fans can catch The Challenge 41 from July 30, 2025.

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