finalist vs contender

finalist and contender both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
finalist	Yes	No	No	No
contender	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, contender is a hypernym of finalist; that is, contender is a word with a broader meaning than finalist:

Other hypernyms of finalist include challenger, competition, competitor, rival.

finalist (noun)	contender (noun)
a contestant who reaches the final stages of a competition	the contestant you hope to defeat