Yahoo News Canada
·4 min read
Testing their memory with a clothesline of laundry, John Ferguson and Connor Carroll ended their time on The Amazing Race Canadaon CTV. While the friends from Ontario proved to be persistent in the tough race, they fell behind the rest of the pack in British Columbia.
When the team reached Jon Montgomery at the end of this leg in the race, confirming their elimination, Ferguson highlighted that he wanted to "showcase the physical capabilities of little people" on the show. Ferguson was born with achondroplasia dwarfism.
"I've received plenty of feedback from fellow little people and it's incredible to see, because I never really thought of myself as like an 'inspiration' or a 'role model,'" Ferguson told Yahoo Canada. "It was incredible to kind of have that whole new role of inspiring fellow little people."
"I think we are one of the last minority groups that haven't really been that well represented in mainstream media. Every Christmas we're elves, in March we're leprechauns. So it's cool that in July we were looked at as incredible physical athletes. ... And also a lot of fellow little people [are competing] in the Paralympics in France. So everybody go watch that."
Memorizing during the race: 'It's insane'
Going into this week's leg of the race, the Detour had the teams choose between stomping grapes or memorizing and replicating a clothesline of undergarments. Choosing the "Undress" challenge, Ferguson and Carroll stumbled to remember the tricky sequence of hanging items.
"It's funny because we thought that was going to be our strong suit," Carroll said. "Turned out we were wrong."
"It's super challenging with everything going on, trying to memorize while running the race and you're just in this completely chaotic environment. It looks a lot easier than it is, I'll put it like that. It's insane."
"I thought my memorization was pretty solid. I even tried to make a song out of the clothesline," Ferguson added.
'I didn't hop on a drama series, this is about just running your own race'
This week's episode of Amazing Race Canada also saw the first U-Turn vote in the show's history. When the votes were counted, Kevin Martin and Gurleen Maan were the U-Turn victims, after trying to manipulate the other teams in an attempt to not get the vote.
While that strategy didn't work, there was a twist. Martin and Maan got to pick another team to get the U-Turn punishment, which went to Julia Viola and Olivia Curto.
Ferguson and Carroll confirmed that Martin and Maan were seen as strong competitors to beat in the race.
"Kevin's super sharp. He's been on reality TV before. He's a poker player. So I think everyone kind of saw them as a threat," Carroll said.
While Ferguson and Carroll didn't have to face the U-Turn barrier in the race, they also weren't fans of the addition to the game.
"I looked at it as, it's up to you how far you make it on this race," Ferguson said. "You can focus on everybody else, but it's just a waste your own time and energy. Just run your own race, like finish it. You will not make it anywhere focusing on what everyone else is up to."
"My honest belief on the whole U-Turn situation is, I hated it. It was so annoying to hear about it. All the other racers asking, 'Who are you going to vote for?' I'm like, dude, you're asking me during my only break as well. I'm focused on what food I'm selecting right now. I didn't hop on a drama series, this is about just running your own race and showing your physical capabilities."
Once Ferguson and Carroll were home from Amazing Race Canada, and couldn't tell anyone about the outcome, there was a bit of a transition period out of being in race mode, specifically for Ferguson.
"I had a lot of friends at home, when I opened my phone, who had reached out over the month," he explained. "I decided not to reply to anybody for the first 48 hours of arriving home."
"I thought, you know what, I'm just going to hang out with my family, because I'm usually in the U.S. anyways, and I used that 48 hours to really unwind. And I needed it. So I'm super grateful for the fact that no one was aware when I was home, because I took that and I used it to my advantage."
New episodes of The Amazing Race Canada Season 10 air Tuesdays on CTV, CTV.ca and the CTV app.
