Olympic swimmer Elizabeth Beisel will be part of the cast for the 39th season of CBS’s hit reality TV series Survivor, per a report by a media outlet covering the show.
Season 39 wrapped up filming last month in Fiji’s Mamanuca Islands according to Inside Survivor, a site that covers the long-running reality TV show and has accurately leaked the casts of all recent seasons. The season should air on CBS next fall.
Currently, Inside Survivor has reported 11 of the 20 cast members, including the 26-year-old Beisel. Beisel competed at the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympics for Team USA, winning a silver medal in the 400 IM and a bronze medal in the 200 back in London in 2012. She’s also a world champ (400 IM in 2011) and three-time Pan Pacs champ.
Beisel is a fairly high-profile swimmer: she was a U.S. national teamer at age 13 and competed at the World Championships at 14. She was a staple on Team USA’s international rosters from 2007 to 2017, but stopped competing after the 2017 World Championships. Since then, Beisel has dabbled with color commentary for televised swim meets, and she told SwimSwam in February that “swimming hasn’t really ended for me, but competing has.”
All that is to say that the colorful and bubbly Beisel one of the rare swimmers who is pretty likely to be recognized as a celebrity by the rest of her Survivor cast. Season 39 of the hit series will be titled “Island of the Idols,” and will feature two of the game’s most iconic players (‘Boston Rob’ Mariano and two-time winner Sandra Diaz-Twine) returning as “advisers” for the cast of all-new players.
Swimmers have been well-represented in the show’s casting history. Olympian Katrina Radke appeared on season 35, which aired in 2017. Season 27 winner Tyson Apostol was a Division I swimmer at Brigham Young University, swim coach Holly Hoffman was the fourth-place finisher in season 21, and season 19 cast member Jaison Robinson was a former Stanford water polo player.
I’d expect Beisel to do fairly well here. She’s super bubbly and relatable which is a huge key into making social inroads. If she has done some homework on the show and knows what to expect going in I wouldn’t be surprised to see her make a deep run. Which would be nice, as it would raise the average placement of swimming Olympians on the show tremendously (sorry Katrina).
I really hope she considers a comeback. She’s in great shape, and I’d like to see what she could do now that Troy has his focus on postgrads. Making a fourth US Olympic Team in the 400 IM would be completely badass and unprecedented.
oh yes …..
RC Saint Amour was a swimmer on the show as well-I believe she swam for Wellesley, and still swims at Masters meets.
Does swimming necessarily want to claim RC? Those Ponderosa videos were pretty unbecoming
Ever seen Beisel do backstroke kick LCM with her hands straight up over her chest? Brutal.
was she not training with Troy back in the day ( Not so long ago LOL ) ?
Elizabeth is known for her likeability, so that she keep her in the game for awhile. She’s smart too, if they’ve got challenges with puzzles to solve.
You’ve also got to bear in mind Shane Gould won Australian survivor last year.
You forgot Holly Hoffman! She was/is a swim coach for Eureka Swim Club, South Dakota! Pretty sure she was top 3 on one series. Her daughters were very talented division 1 swimmers, and Alex ended up being a model, or something.
How could I forget Holly Hoffman? Updated!
hey, Jared is it the 38th or 39th season?
Sorry, 39th season. 38 is currently airing on TV.