Popular Jeopardy! Super-champion Ryan Long is discussing his time on the show. He’s faced accusations of intentionally throwing his final game. Here’s what he has to say.
A Dream Fulfilled
There was a time when Long thought he would never be on Jeopardy!. In an interview with USA Today, he said his childhood dream kept getting deferred. “I tried never to let that resentment get to me, but at a certain point, you get 30, then you get 35. Then you start edging towards 40, and it’s like, ‘I guess this is it for me.'”
Complicating matters was the birth of his son. He says, “the focus became more on him and making sure he doesn’t waste his potential. So I was more or less giving up on my own aspirations.” Even still, Long never stopped dreaming. He finally got on the show where he entered the record books with 16 wins and $299,400 dollars.
Did Ryan Long Throw His Final ‘Jeopardy!’ Game?
Long was asked about his final game, where he lost to reigning champion Eric Ahasic. Don’t look now, but Ahasic has already earned over $100,000 in just five games. Anyway, Long addressed his haters: “I saw somebody say that I threw the game. I didn’t throw the game. I didn’t lay down for it, but I wasn’t sad that I lost either.”
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What did Long in was a daily double prompt in the first round. Long risked $2000 in the early game and had to come up with a response for “Near the Mass. Ave. T stop on the Orange Line is where this man lived in the 1950s getting his theology Ph.D. at Boston University.” The correct response is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Long came up blank.
“I knew I wasn’t on my top form that day, when the Daily Double with Dr. King came up,” Long explains. He says he’s studied Dr. King and done projects on him, and even knew he went to Boston University. “when I got that question, when I blanked on it, I was like, “Alright, well. That’s probably a sign.” The miss got in his head, and he was then a little bit slower than usual.
What Comes Next
That’s all it took for Ahasic to get the win, but the best is yet to come for Long. He plans to take his son fishing, and he won’t need to be a Lyft driver anymore. He’s also busy preparing for the Tournament of Champions, where he’ll duel with fellow super champions Matt Amodio, Mattea Roach, and Amy Schneider to name a few. Long plans to get in shape for his return: “I’m going to try to trim down a little bit, and I’ll see what happens.” Fans can’t wait for the most anticipated Tournament of Champions ever.