Survivor 47 winner Rachel LaMont has revealed her initial jury-vote predictions and why her stomach was in "knots" at the Final Tribal Council.

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Rachel, a 34-year-old graphic designer from Dexter, MI, who currently resides in Southfield, MI, won Survivor through a 7-1 jury vote against Sam Phalen, a 24-year-old sports reporter from Schaumburg, IL, at the Final Tribal Council session on Night 26 of the game.

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Kyle Ostwald was the one Survivor juror who voted for Sam to win the million dollars.

Sue Smey, a 59-year-old flight school owner from Kirkwood, NY, who currently resides in Putnam Valley, NY, also made the Final 3 castaways, but she received zero jury votes to win.

"The votes I was least sure about were Kyle and [Gabe Ortis]. I was pretty sure I had [Caroline Vidmar] and [Genevieve Mushaluk]," Rachel told Entertainment Weekly in a post-finale interview.

"I had a feeling I had [Sierra Wright]. There were a few indications as I kept coming in with the necklace. She was just grinning at me. There was one point where she mouthed, 'I'm so proud of you' from the jury bench."

But given Sierra and Sam had been extremely close allies during the Survivor game, Rachel admitted, "I was like, 'I know she's going to be very conflicted.' But Sierra was one of the votes at Final Tribal where I was like, 'I think she's voting for Sam.'"

Rachel certainly didn't think she had Survivor in the bag, even though she had won four Individual Immunity challenges and executed an outstanding idol play.

"There were definitely things where I was like 'Shoot!'" Rachel recalled of the final jury questioning. "And then the way that [Andy Rueda] was, I don't know. And even [Teeny Chirichillo]!"

Andy, for example, had pointed out at the Final Tribal Council how Rachel was a "challenge beast" and an "idol finder" but had the worst voting record of the Final 3.

"At Final 5 when I won that Immunity, I was like, 'I just won the game, I think,'" Rachel recalled.

But Sam had won his way into the Final 3 with a jaw-dropping victory in the fire-making challenge against Teeny.

Teeny was about to beat Sam when suddenly the wind shifted her flame to the side and allowed Sam's flame to burn right through his rope.

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It was an incredible comeback for Sam, and Survivor host Jeff Probst noted that was one of the closest and most exciting fire-starting challenges he had ever seen.

"The jury [was] jumping off the bench and Sam winning fire in the most dramatic way -- I knew that there was a possibility he might win [at fire], but could you have won in a way that wasn't the most dramatic way anyone's ever won fire before? Win normally! Not like that!" Rachel quipped.

"And then to have him have such a strong Final Tribal," she added.

At the Final Tribal Council that aired on Wednesday, December 18 on CBS, Sam suggested that Rachel got to the end with Immunity necklaces and luck, such as when she had received an idol clue in her fries at the Survivor auction.

Sam argued that Rachel had lost a lot of strategic and social agency as the game progressed and so she had to rely on wins and advantages.

"I got voted for more than anybody here," Sam boasted to the jury.

"I'm the only one in the game that never voted incorrectly, I was voted for at four different Tribal Councils, and I received a total of 10 votes throughout this game. You, [Rachel], were the one who said multiple times, 'I need him out of this game. He's a threat.'"

When Jeff read the jury votes aloud in Fiji, Rachel confessed she was "the most scared" she had been all week long.

"My stomach was in complete knots and, truly, there's a part of me that was like, 'I think I might've just lost.' So the confidence really wavered throughout those last couple days," she said.

In addition to Kyle, Rachel revealed that she was worried about Gabe's vote because they didn't have "a very close personal connection" in Fiji.

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"I mean Gabe and I, we did work together a few times... [But] Sam and Gabe would talk sports for hours every day and just go down these rabbit holes of 'this player, that player' and I would just be like, 'Let's tune out, go find someone else to talk to,'" Rachel shared.

"I knew Gabe was a gamer and so I did feel good about the fact that I felt like I played kind of a flashy game, a game that I would've thought that he might've played."

Rachel thought her game would "appeal" to Gabe and so there was a possibility she'd receive his vote.

"But there's those relationships, and those are the intangibles in Survivor where you can look at people and you can try to guess what they're thinking and what their motivations are and their perspective, but you're always guessing," Rachel reasoned.

"You can't read other people's minds."

Rachel recalled how the pressure she felt during that Final Tribal Council was "unlike anything that I've ever felt in my life."

Rachel elaborated, "It is this culmination of you've spent 26 days struggling every day, and you're finally here at the end and you think you can do it, but if you screw up right now, everything was for nothing."

She added, "The pressure of that is so immense and to have it actually work out and I won Survivor... I think I just blacked out at that point."

With Survivor 50 on the horizon, which Jeff previously said will consist of returning players, Rachel insisted that she would love to play again.

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"How could I not? This is the most incredible adventure," Rachel gushed.

"I still think all the time about just sitting on Beka beach in the dirt with my friends around the campfire playing a crazy game. And if they called, of course I would go."
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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