When we were taping Gladiatorerna, I was really excited to find out the Jennifer Kucukkaya was going to compete this season. Jennifer and I both play basketball in Basketligan Dam, and played several years against each other. From basketball, I knew that she is extremely quick, competitive, and has an aggressive mentality. Although she is small, weighing in at only 55 kg, my first thought was that she may actually do well. You don’t have to be big to be successful in this show, and her quickness is almost deadly, at least for Gladiatorerna. I knew that the producers were going to have a little fun with the fact that we both play basketball and have competed against each other for some time. At first, we were supposed to match up against each other in Duellen. That would have been a completely unfair fight since i weigh almost 25 kg more than Jennifer. So I was happy to hear that they switched our matchup to Rekylen. In that event, she would definitely have a chance to gain points by using her speed to get to the pillows first. Plus, Lahdo would call me back to the start position after being in the front for so long, so there would be definite chances to get points. I knew that if I would have a chance in keeping my body in front of hers and blocking her from grabbing pillows, I would have to get to the middle first, and control the game from there. The one mistake that Jennifer made in that match was that she went for the red pillows rather than trying to get all the blue pillows first. She didn’t have enough body weight to pull far enough and jump high enough to grab the red ones.
Jennifer did well I would say in all of the other events. She stayed on a respectable amount of time against Spirit in Duellen, and of course she killed in Attackbollen. It wouldn’t have mattered which Gladiator she would have matched up against. She would have smoked us all. Hyper was just the unlucky one to get the matchup. She dominated in that event, and she should have. Years of basketball mastered her footwork for this event. She gained some important points on Pendeln and even did well in Gatloppet! Great strategy to grab my stick and go under. There was nothing I could do there. Although she didn’t make it all the way through, she gained enough points to keep her in the lead before Hinderbanan.
When it was time for Hinderbanan to begin, my job was over, so I could just sit back and cheer on the competitor that I wanted to win, Jennifer. We are both basketball players, so that puts us on the same team. 🙂 Jennifer had a great start, and looked as though she was on her way to a win. But then she ran into big trouble trying to get up on the pyramid. She kept trying and trying, and I kept screaming and screaming, ” use the ramps!!!!” But when you are that tired and out of breath, it’s so hard to think. Anna goes on to win, and I just sat back and let out a quiet “fan”.
Jennifer did an amazing job! She should be proud of what she did tonight. It took a lot of courage to come out and do what she did, and although she made a few mistakes, she killed most of the night. I just wanted to go out and give her a big hug, and tell her that I was proud of her. She represented the basketball community well, and I hope that she feels the same way.
Great job Jennifer!
