The Only Woman To Win Alone Also Holds The Record For One Of The Longest Stays
History's hit reality show "Alone" is famous for creating grueling conditions to test the grit and survival knowledge of each contestant, and not everyone is up for the challenge. Contestants can choose to leave the show at any time and are also forced to leave if their health is in danger. It takes a lot of mental strength to be the one to make it all the way to the end. And mental strength is something that the only woman to ever win a season of "Alone," Woniya Thibeault, has in abundance.
Thibeault first competed in "Alone" during Season 6 of the show where she lasted for 73 days surviving by herself in the remote wilderness of Labrador, Canada. She didn't win that season but later went on to compete with other past contestants in "Alone: Frozen" where the competitors were tasked with surviving 50 days in the harsh Canadian winter. The premise of the show was that all contestants who made it past 50 days would get a piece of the prize money. However, Thibeault was the only one to pull through to the end of this particularly chilly and gruesome season and got to keep the prize money all to herself.
What it takes to last on Alone
With her appearance in two different seasons, Thibeault may not have the record for the longest consecutive stay on "Alone" (the current record is 100 days) but she is the person who has spent the most time on the show overall with a whopping total of 123 days surviving by herself in the wilderness. This is a large feat considering that the shortest time a person stayed on "Alone" was six hours. So, how did she do it?
It seems that Thibeault's success may have come down to her positive attitude. In an interview with WBUR, Thibeault explained that the prize money wasn't what it was about for her. She was competing "because it was the fulfillment of [her] life's path." Thibeault was a fan-favorite and was also praised on the AloneTV forum of Reddit for her response to winning when she immediately asked about the health of the other contestants and then lamented that she had wanted to share the win with her costars and "walk over the threshold with them," which was a big change from why fans didn't like "Alone" Season 4.
Since winning "Alone: Frozen," Thibeault has become an inspiration for female survivalists as the first woman to win "Alone." In an interview with Vulture, Thibeault explained that this imbalance could just be a numbers game because "most of these survival shows are very male dominant," and this season "was the first time they had equal numbers of men and women."