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Running with Former Olympian Crystal Cox from Survivor Gabon
by Troy Rogers
 As the playing field in Survivor Gabon got narrowed to the final six, with 57 year old high school teacher, Bob Crowley, dominating the challenges and stealing much of the power away from Sugar, the remaining tribe members of Nobag were forced to strategize to protect their alliances. Although former Olympic gold medalist, Crystal Cox, was aligned with Sugar, Kenny and Matty, with Susie now factoring into the mix like never before, the bonds had to be broken in order to narrow the field even further. While either Susie or Matty seemed like odds on bets to be sent packing from Gabon, the dwindling Nobaggers banded together and blindsided the former Olympian, which made Crystal the latest to be voted out of Survivor Gabon.
The next morning, we caught up with Crystal to find out how she felt about being blindsided and her time in Gabon.
THE DEADBOLT: How surprised were you to be voted off?
CRYSTAL COX: I was surprised. I knew I had a target on my back, because I had a strong alliance with Kenny and Sugar, but I did think that Sugar was going to turn on me. And they just surprised the crap out of me.
THE DEADBOLT: It surprised me, too, because at a certain point I didn’t know what the hell was going on. I was positive they were going after Kenny.
CRYSTAL: [laughs] Well, knowing the relationship that Kenny and I had, we were going to protect each other. I thought that Matty was going to be the one gone, because Bob and I even discussed it at the reward and we were going to be gunning for Matty because Matty was the physical threat.
THE DEADBOLT: Why did you freak out at Matty? It was Kenny that broke the alliance. That’s what I thought you were upset about.
CRYSTAL: No, I wasn’t mad about that, because I knew which way he was going to vote. I was moreso upset at Matty because when we got back to camp he was freaking out because he saw his name on the paper. I was like, ‘Come on, Matty, be quiet.’ And I just couldn’t take it anymore.
THE DEADBOLT: What did you think of the reward with the gorillas?
 CRYSTAL: It was great. There were three of them - a baby, a teenager, and a silverback. They were funny. The baby would climb this tree and the teenager would come up and knock him off and hit him upside the head. [laughs] But the thing is - they were playing. To us it looked like they were fighting but they were really playing.
THE DEADBOLT: What was the rationale behind flushing Bob’s fake idol out a week before when Sugar has been able to carry hers for the entire game?
CRYSTAL: Well, the whole idea of Sugar holding on to hers was to use to protect one of her alliance, which was mainly Kenny or myself, and we knew that we were going to help carry each other all the way to the end. The whole idea behind the fake idol was to let Corinne play it and Matty would go home but then she would go home anyways.
THE DEADBOLT: How do you feel about your edit, because you appear mean and abrasive and Sugar appears nice. According to other ex-tribe members, that’s not the case?
CRYSTAL: [laughs] Exactly, and I was quite surprised how my edit has been coming across. And then, after a while I was like, ‘Forget it. I’m just going to roll with it because maybe that’s what’s going to sell for television.’ But, yeah, I was quite surprised. They got me at every moment they could with me busting somebody out. They didn’t show me dancing around camp and helping out with the cooking and - You know, the folks that know me outside of the game, and know who I truly am, they know it was for television.
THE DEADBOLT: That’s interesting, because when I got a chance to talk to Randy and he basically said he didn’t really have a problem with you.
 CRYSTAL: Yeah. The thing is, Randy didn’t have a reason to dislike me. No one in that game had a reason to dislike me, because I didn’t play a deceitful game. He pretty much turned a whole tribe, Kota, against me. And then when I had a chance to interact with them, every single person - What they fail to show, which was so disappointing to me, every person saying, ‘Oh, my gosh, Crystal, you are not like how we thought you were.’ Every person said that.
THE DEADBOLT: I know you had a hard time at Ponderosa. Did it get better while you were there or did you have to wait for someone else to show up?
CRYSTAL: I had to wait for someone else to show up. Yeah, I pretty much just hung out by myself until the next person arrived.
THE DEADBOLT: For most of the game you were sitting in a pretty good spot. So what was your original strategy going in?
CRYSTAL: To play a low-key physical game, which ended up low-key anyway [laughs]. But to just have numbers on my side and make sure every time I go into tribal my name wasn’t written down.
THE DEADBOLT: I’ve asked everyone what they didn’t like about Africa, and they all said it was cold. Is that what bugged you the most?
CRYSTAL: It’s not cold there. It’s cold at night but when I knew it was the coldest, behind my knees started to hurt. But it was not cold there. It wasn’t like sweltering heat either, but it was very comfortable.
THE DEADBOLT: I’m surprised, because they were saying at night it was freezing.
 CRYSTAL: Well, yeah, at night you had to practically lay in the fire to stay warm. But other than that, during the day time, once the sun came up, you were good to go. Like you can wash your clothes and boil it in the pot in the morning and by the afternoon your clothes were dry.
THE DEADBOLT: So was that the worst part for you, just the cold at night?
CRYSTAL: I’ll say the worst part for me would be the food, because I love to eat. And training and competing I eat to fuel my muscles. That was the hardest part, just not eating, and I thought about food constantly.
THE DEADBOLT: Since you guys were confined to one specific area, do you have any plans to go back and check it out on your own?
CRYSTAL: I would love to visit the continent again. I could see going back to Gabon, possibly, but I would really love to go and just see Africa and take in the culture and take it for what it’s worth.
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