Survivor winner Hayley Leake reveals how she outsmarted the show

This year’s Survivor winner Hayley Leake reveals to news.com.au she had a secret trick that took her all the way to the $500,000 prize money.

She was a fierce gameplayer who always seemed two steps ahead of her fellow contestants, but this year’s Survivor winner Hayley Leake also appeared to have a secret weapon in her arsenal: An incredible knack for withstanding the show’s tough endurance-based challenges.

Nowhere was that more apparent than during Sunday night’s finale, where the top three contestants endured a gruelling final challenge, having to hold position in a chamber with narrow pegs on the floor and spikes on the ceiling. Wracked with pain, George dropped out after four-and-a-half hours, while a tearful Flick begged to be helped out of the chamber after the five-hour mark.

Hayley, meanwhile, remained her usual stoic self all the way to the win:

Hayley, just hanging out.

The pain got too much for Flick.

Speaking to news.com.au today, four-time immunity idol-winner Hayley revealed why she thought she had the edge on her competitors – and yes, it had something to do with her day job as a pain researcher.

“Three things combined meant that I did well at those: Firstly, I’m a lot lighter than some people, which helps. Secondly, I have a huge history of dancing and ballet, where you get used to a lot of pain on your feet,” she said.

And thirdly?

“I do think that studying pain helps. When you’re in a challenge like that, they try to get you to talk about your pain a lot – asking ‘How do you feel? How bad is the pain?’ Often people are saying ‘Oh, it’s so painful! My feet are so sore! I’ve got a thousand needles in my feet!’ That kind of stuff makes the challenge more threatening,” she said.

Take note, future Survivor contestants: Tune out host Jonathan LaPaglia’s questions at all costs!

“Your brain’s trying to decide, ‘Do I give you pain or not? Do I need to protect you?’ If it’s getting threats coming at it from every angle, it’s going to make pain.”

Hayley, chilled as ever in an earlier endurance challenge.

“If you can do anything to convince your brain that actually you’re safe and it doesn’t need to protect you … I would tell myself, ‘Hey, what’s the worst that’ll happen? You’ll get a blister, you’ll step off and in 10 minutes you’ll feel OK – so keep pushing.’”

Surely, though, in a challenge like last night’s, the pain takes a little more than 10 minutes to subside?

“Yeah … but even if I was aching for a month, it’s still worth half a million dollars,” she reasoned.

About that tidy $500,000. A longtime fan of the show, Hayley said simply holding the title of Survivor winner felt “really important” to her, but she was starting to consider how she’d use the “life-changing” prize money.

“I studied at uni for a really long time, going back to do a PhD, which meant I couldn’t really set myself up financially. It’s fast-tracked a lot of my plans – buy a house that I can start a family in, and make a little tribe of my own.”

Hayley says she didn’t think she was ‘interesting’ enough to be a contestant.

Not bad for someone who held off on applying for the show for years because she confessed she didn’t think she was “special” enough to be chosen.

“I’d always see these big characters on the screen, like the ‘Golden God’ David [Genat]. I just didn’t think I was interesting enough to get on the show,” she said. “I met the executive producer right before I went into the game, and my only question was: ‘Why did you cast me?’” she revealed with a laugh.

Her fears were unfounded, as Leake emerged as a fan favourite early in the season thanks to her smart gameplay. She revealed she’d even changed her original plan to ‘lay low’ once she was in the game.

“I went in thinking, if I want to win, I really have to play low-key for a long time and not be a threat – maybe not even make any moves until merge. But, I also went in knowing 23 people lose; the odds of losing are pretty high. I’d really regret doing nothing and getting voted out – I think that would be a worse outcome for me.

“I thought, I’ve come here to play, and I want to play.”