I never saw Sandra in Pearl Islands, but you’ve gotta be out of your mind if you think Sandra in HvV was a better winner than Natalie. She just fails to compare to Natalie on so many levels.

1- Natalie pulled off at least three major blindsides with perfect timing and execution, and for good strategic reasons. Sandra’s only strategy the whole game was to get rid of Russell, which a) was purely personal because anyone could have beaten Russell at the end and b) she never successfully pulled off, since he sat next to her in the finals.

2- Natalie had a much harder road to run to the end. She had to navigate a post merge landscape full of couples with unbreakable bonds. She won because she smartly used two of the couples as shields throughout the game, orchestrated some blindsides at the end to break them up so they don’t control the endgame, and was tight enough with the remaining 2 people that she didn’t get any backlash for voting off their loved ones. She played her cards brilliantly. Sandra’s path through HvV on the other hand was insanely easy. She was only in danger at one TC right before the merge, and even then it was a coin flip between her and Courtney going home. She didn’t do anything better than Courtney to stay in the game. After the merge she was never in danger because there were bigger targets on both sides and all she had to do to get to the end was stay the course.

3 – Natalie won over a difficult jury. She sat next to 2 people who were automatically getting votes because of their loved ones. She was also facing a jury full of men (minus Jeremy) who have showed time and again that they don’t think highly of women. She got their votes because she was able to distinguish herself from the other women by working around camp, doing well in challenges, and connecting with the bros in a way none of the other women could. She totally earned every vote she got. Sandra on the other hand was the beneficiary of one of the most bitter juries in Survivor history. In the end, she won because she wasn’t Russell or Parvati.

Natalie should be ranked higher than Sandra in every way. I also maintain that she should be higher than Tyson, Yul, and Denise and probably tied with Tony. Definitely at least 11-12 on the list.