Sam Molineaux was by far one of the most physical contenders on The Summit but after jumping into a kayak and being pipped at the post to a duffle bag full of cash by Alex Silvagni, his dreams of making it to the top of the mountain came crashing down.
During the May 23 episode of Nine’s break-out hit show, Molineaux’s journey ended, made bittersweet by the fact that he walked away with a cool $10k. But for the avid adventurer and owner of MoveWell Training in Sydney’s Bondi, earning some coin wasn’t the only motivator for his foray to the top.
“It was right up my alley,” the 29-year-old told Mediaweek in an interview before his elimination. “I’ve done a lot of cycling through New Zealand and around a lot of the world but I’ll usually leave my pack and I’ll usually run the trails where I’m like, I wonder how quickly I can do it?”
While some of the Trekkers struggled to hike through the gruelling terrain, the personal trainer was challenged in a different way.
“I don’t genuinely like hiking, it’s just too slow,” he said. “I’m always looking for a little bit of an adrenaline rush and if I’m completely honest, the challenges that we came up against, the obstacles, they weren’t hard. I didn’t come across a single obstacle that I found difficult or that I was nervous about, it was more looking around our group and who is going to need the most help and the most support to get through it themselves.”
Sam Molineaux had a target on his back from the get-go
One of Molineaux’s outside-world strengths is motivating clients to be the best version of themselves; however, during his time on The Summit, this quality — and his physical abilities — quickly put a huge target on his back.
“I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to play it low-key and playoff that physical side,” he admitted. “I’m an extremely energetic person and I’m enthusiastic and I have a really hard time dulling that side of me down. I completely thought it was going to come down to physicality and helping every single person out that needed it.”
And Molineaux’s assumptions were not lost on fans either, because truly, how else are you going to climb up a mountain in two weeks if you don’t have the physical gumption to do so?
“Every single time we saw a Jai [Courtney], he was emphasising how slow we were going, emphasising how much we have to make up,” he said. “And he was pretty clear. If you don’t make it in time, you will get nothing. That was scary and really infuriating when I got voted off, and I was looking around, thinking I’m definitely not the weakest link.”
Molineaux felt “backstabbed” by the other Trekkers
During his farewell episode, Silvagni led the charge in sending Molineaux home alongside Isaac Compton, Brooke Kilowsky and Lulu Hawton.
“Alex led the conversation and I know it was Alex’s voice at large,” he said. “Looking back and seeing the other episodes, I also knew Isaac wanted to get rid of me for a long time, irrespective of how much I helped him through the grit. I had so many chats with Isaac about helping to motivate and keep him on track and keep him going when he wanted to pull out and I felt absolutely backstabbed. Every single person’s hand went up to send me home at that point.
“Not a single one of them could look me in the eye as their hand went up and I was just going through the group and I thought, ‘this is an escalating mutiny’.”
As for the group’s reasoning?
“I think they wanted to finally get rid of the strongest person in the group,” he said. “I felt they probably felt like it was time to cut their losses and that they might not get a better opportunity to trim the muscle.”
Molineaux reflects on his “demise” on The Summit
As Stephen Butler and Jacqui Cooper previously revealed to Mediaweek, not one contestant going into the show knew there would be a Survivor-esque strategic element. For Molineaux, he was no exception, and this was what he felt was his downfall.
“I am terrible [at strategy],” he admitted. “I wanted to be a team player and I wanted to help everyone out. I’m not cunning, I’m not decisive. Honestly? What you see is what you get. An enthusiastic coach. And I didn’t have any tactics at any point and unfortunately, that was my demise.
“I didn’t work on alliances and hiding who I was or how I was going to play the field. Had I done it again, I probably would have played a little bit differently.”
The Summit continues on Sunday, May 28 at 7.30 pm on 9 and 9Now.