These are the only RuPaul’s Drag Race queens with four challenge wins – including season 17’s Onya Nurve

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Only eight queens in the herstory of RuPaul’s Drag Race have won four maxi-challenges on their original seasons – including a lot of winners, two season 16 girls and season 17’s Onya Nurve.

RuPaul’s Drag Race is nearing the end of its seventeenth season, and Onya Nurve has just snatched her fourth challenge win – something that should strike fear into the hearts of her competitors and dispel the illusion that Suzie Toot is still the frontrunner.

To put it into perspective, most queens leave Drag Race without a single win; two is impressive, three is positively gagworthy and four is out of this world. Like, seriously. So much so, that over 17 seasons and 228 queens, only a handful have ever done so.

Though eight glamazons have made the milestone, one of them is season four’s Sharon Needles, who we won’t be including. Without further ado, here are the seven queens to win four maxi-challenges on their first season of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Shea Coulée – season nine

The first queen after season four to snatch a quadruplet of challenge wins was Shea Coulée, five years later – and she’s one of four to do so without taking their season’s crown.

Famously, Ms. Coulée did not win her first season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, getting knocked out during the finale’s penultimate lip-sync to a rose-petal-fuelled Sasha Velour – who had two wins, both shared with Shea.

Though Shea returned for All Stars 5, which she won, and then All Stars 7, her original run remains a firm fan favourite. She won the Improv challenge “Good Morning B*tches”, the Kardashian Rusical, the Advert challenge “My Pilot’s on Fire” and the Gayest Ball Ever.

Gigi Goode – season twelve

Three seasons later, Gigi Goode joined Shea in the ‘four wins, no crown’ club during her spectacular run on season twelve of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Despite the win count, she lost out to Jaida Essence Hall (who had three wins herself, thank you very much), and has not yet returned for an All Stars season.

Gigi won the Ball Ball, the iconic Snatch Game as Maria The Robot, Madonna: The Unauthorised Rusical (sorry, Jan) and the season’s final challenge/ advert for the Vegas show, “Viva Drag Vegas”. She was also in the top two for the season’s first episode. What’s after seven? Ate.

Symone – season thirteen

The first queen to actually win their season after collecting four challenge wins, after season four, was season thirteen’s Symone.

The ebony enchantress swiped the win for the first proper challenge of the season among the ‘Winners’ Circle’, the “Condragulations” girl group number, and then went on to dominate two acting challenges – “RuPaulmark Channel” and “Pop! Goes The Queens” – and the makeover with Utica.

Interestingly, Symone was also the first winner of the flagship franchise to a land in the bottom two twice after the Rusical and the Nice Girls Roast. Clearly that is the versatility the judges were looking for.

asha Colby – season fifteen

It was really no surprise that Sasha Colby won her season of RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2023 – especially when she picked up four challenge wins along the way.

The former Miss Continental bulldozed the season’s first acting/ improv challenge, “All Queens Go To Heaven”, and then picked up back-to-back triumphs in The Crystal Ball and unique interview task “50/50’s Most Gagworthy Stars”.

Sasha then made it a foursome by winning the season’s final music video challenge to “Blame It On The Edit” – probably because Anetra said that she was doing a hair flip while wearing a helmet.

Plane Jane – season sixteen

Season sixteen of RuPaul’s Drag Race is the only one to feature two girls that made it to four challenge wins – and one of them was the villain of the season, Plane Jane.

Miss Jane, or Plane if you’re nasty, was awarded a win for her “Burger Finger” Talent Show number in the season’s second split premiere, and then one six episodes later in the Snatch Game.

She then scooped a win two episodes on the fly for the season’s Design/ Improv task “Bathroom Hunties” (which is still a weird challenge, if we’re honest) and got her final for the Makeover Challenge. An All Stars is going to hate to see her coming, after she finished in third place.

Sapphira Cristál – season sixteen

The beloved runner up to season 16 champion Nymphia Wind, Sapphire Cristàl did not come to play, winning four challenge during her stellar Drag Race run.

These include her premiere Talent Show (after a top two lip-sync) and then the season’s performance challenge to political anthem “Power” – after another top two lip-sync.

Sapphire then won the season’s Monologue challenge for “Corporate Queens”, and swiped her final challenge win, shared with Plane, for “Bathroom Hunties”. Still weird. Again, an All Stars is going to hate to see her coming.

Onya Nurve – season seventeen

The undeniable front runner of season 17, Onya Nurve is the most recent inductee in the four-wins hall of fame.

Let’s count them out: Onya got her first win for the season’s Lip-Sync/ Performance challenge “B*tch, I’m a Drag Queen!”. She then nabbed one for the Snatch Game (no biggie), and picked up two in a row for Acting challenge “Ross Matthews vs. The Ducks” and “The C*NT Monologues” – the latter of which was shared with Lexi Love.

Besides the above, if season 17 has, like its predecessor, 16 instalments, with a lip-sync smackdown and a finale for its final two, Onya has two more chances to grab a win. Could she be the first queen ever to win five maxi-challenges?