Olive Zalinski

 is a contestant from Survivor: Indonesia.

Profile
Olive Zalinski is a 26-year-old security guard from Frederick, Maryland. She grew up in a strict Ukrainian Catholic household and has very deep faith to this day. Olive is the youngest of three children (she has two older brothers) and used to be extremely social and a bit of a rebel. She has always been very athletic, and even played on the boy’s baseball and hockey teams in high school. When Olive was younger, she dreamed of getting involved in politics and studying International Relations in Washington, D.C. That all changed however, when Olive got pregnant at the age of 19 (about 2 months before her 20th birthday). Due to her studies, there was quite a bit of pressure on Olive to abort her child, notably from Olive’s boyfriend at the time, who didn’t have the means to support a child, and didn’t want his parents finding out he got Olive pregnant. However, on the other side of the coin was her strong Ukrainian Catholic faith and pro-life beliefs. When Olive was about 6 months pregnant, her boyfriend again pressured her to abort the child, but she confronted him, and refused. Infuriated, her boyfriend dumped her on the spot and cut off all contact with her. When Olive had her son Isaac, she had to drop out of college, move back home, and unfortunately, neither her or her parents had the money to get a lawyer and sue her ex for child support.

Olive has since gotten back on her feet and is working as a hospital security guard. She says that her now 6-year-old son is everything to her, and she could not imagine what life would be like if she listened to her ex. Olive is now engaged to her fiancé, Thomas, and also volunteers with a charity that provides pre-natal and post-natal support for single, pregnant women, in addition to organizing pro-life fundraisers through her church. Olive is proud of her strong, conservative belief system. She has a is fairly sassy and has a somewhat dark sense of humour, as well as a no-B.S. type attitude. Despite Olive’s strong faith, she is determined to win the million dollars to change her family’s life, as well as to support the charity she volunteers with. As such, she doesn’t care how much she needs to lie and cheat to win the game, as long as she walks away with the money at the end of the day.