Aras Baskauskas

Aras Vydunas Baskauskas is the winner of Survivor: Panama.

Profile
Aras Baskauskas completed his undergraduate program in three years and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from the University of California, Irvine. In 2003, he was named one of UC Irvine's "Most Eligible Bachelors" in the student newspaper.

Baskauskas continued his education at UC Irvine and graduated from the Graduate School of Management, where he received his Masters in Business Administration. He is proudest of being the only student to have played NCAA Men's Division One basketball on scholarship while in the MBA program.

Baskauskas is a former professional basketball player, having played briefly overseas in Lithuania. After leaving the court, Aras moved to Capetown, South Africa, where he opened up a donation-based yoga studio. He currently works as a yoga instructor in Santa Monica, California. His hobbies include meditation, golf and surfing. He describes himself as outgoing, compassionate and genuine.

As of Panama, Baskauskas lived in Santa Monica, California.

Survivor: Panama
Originally part of the Younger Male Viveros tribe, Aras did not become a target early in the game, leading his tribe to victory in the first immunity challenge. In Episode 2, Aras became a member of the Casaya tribe and formed an early alliance with Shane Powers, Courtney Marit and Danielle DiLorenzo. But the alliance was threatened with extinction when Shane wanted to quit the game, having smoked three packets of cigarettes a day prior to Survivor. But Aras convinced him not to quit and the alliance voted out Melinda Hyder instead.

In Episode 5, Aras led the charge to vote out Bruce Kanegai due to their clashing points of view, but Courtney, Danielle and Cirie Fields felt that Bobby Mason was much more of a threat than Bruce and they voted Bobby out. When the tribes merged in Episode 7, the ex-Casaya tribe members consisting of Aras, Shane, Bruce, Cirie, Courtney and Danielle had the power in numbers against the four ex-La Mina tribe members. Due to Terry Deitz, the largest target, winning immunity, the alliance voted out Nick Stanbury, Austin Carty and Sally Schumann in three straight tribal councils.

At the Final 7, Bruce was evacuated out of the game due to constipation, causing him immense pain. When Terry continued to win individual immunity, the alliance was forced to turn on themselves at the final six. Shane, together with Cirie and Aras targeted Danielle, but Courtney, together with Terry, Danielle and Cirie wanted to vote out Aras. Not happy with any of these options, Cirie brewed a plan of her own, and together with Aras and Danielle, voted out Courtney, whom Cirie believed was aligned with Shane.

At the final five, Terry continued his immunity winning streak and once again the alliance was forced to take out one of their own. Shane, believing he was safe, targeted Danielle. But once again Cirie had her own plans and together with Aras and Danielle, they voted out Shane, who had aligned with Terry. At the final four, the long-standing rivalry between Terry and Aras was once again raised when Aras won a reward, much to Terry's dismay. When given the choice of picking someone to go on the reward with him to cross the Panama Canal, he decided to pick Cirie which then in turn sent both Terry and Danielle to Exile Island. When sent to Exile Island, Terry and Danielle formed an alliance against Aras and Cirie with plans of ousting Aras.

But Aras managed to win immunity, making him safe. Terry, due to the widely-known fact that he possessed the hidden immunity idol, was also safe. This created a 2-2 tie between Danielle and Cirie, whom competed in a fire-building challenge to determine their fate. Shown over two episodes, Danielle won the challenge and Aras' ally Cirie was eliminated. With Terry's idol now useless, it was now fair game between the final three, Aras, Danielle and Terry.

The final immunity was the first to be predecessed by a "prepare for the immunity challenge" reward for the reward challenge winner. The immunity challenge was not one that the winner of the reward challenge would profit from. At the final immunity challenge, Danielle out-balanced the two guys to win immunity, giving her the power to choose her opponent in the final two. Danielle eventually chose to eliminate Terry, making him the final member of the jury and propelling Aras into the final two. The challenge ended the perceived battle between both Terry and Aras.

On Day 39, while he and Danielle had glasses of champagne, Aras slipped on a wet rock and fell, sending shards of glass into his hand and back. His wounds required seven stitches by the medical crew.

In the end, despite the injury, Aras Baskauskas beat out Danielle DiLorenzo to become the Sole Survivor in a 5-2 vote, gaining the votes of Austin Carty, Sally Schumann, Courtney Marit, Cirie Fields and Terry Deitz.

Trivia

 * Aras is of Lithuanian heritage.
 * Aras shares the same birthdate as Survivor: Vanuatu contestant, John Kenney.
 * Aras injured himself on Day 39, but was not evacuated since it was the final day of the game.
 * Aras was the only Viveros member to win individual immunity.
 * Aras is the youngest member from the original Viveros.
 * Aras thus far has the most votes cast against him out of any winner with 9.
 * Aras' name is actually pronounced Ahd-is.
 * Aras is the only male Sole Survivor from a season shot in Panama.