(Photo credit: CTV)
Thunder Child First Nation father-and-son duo Michael and Amari Linklater have been eliminated from the tenth season of the Amazing Race Canada.
41-year-old Michael is an ex-professional basketball player who has won multiple championships playing 3×3 basketball and has played for Team Canada, Team Saskatoon, and the Saskatchewan Rattlers. He currently works as a motivational speaker for Indigenous communities. His son, 19-year-old Amari, also has a love for basketball and is currently playing college basketball for NAIT in Edmonton.
Throughout the season, the duo crushed physical challenges as expected with their athletic backgrounds, but they also excelled at other challenges in the race.
“Physical challenges; we were in and out of those, even some of the other ones that weren’t physical. Just a lapse in judgment for us in that last leg was something that cost us, and I think when you watch the show, you don’t realize how much luck plays a major factor in this television show,” explained Michael.
On episode eight, which aired on Tuesday, there was a challenge where teams could choose between a math challenge where teams had to purchase an order of Haggis using old coins and a memory and precision task where teams had to learn to correctly fold a tartan into a kilt and then search the fairgrounds for someone wearing their matching tartan. Michael and Amari believe that this challenge is the reason their time in the race was cut short.
“It was us making the wrong decision of going to the folding station rather than the coin station off the hop. We should’ve gone to the coin station because we might have had a better chance of working with some of the other teams who we believe would’ve helped us out,” said Michael.
Going into the race, Michael and Amari’s team motto was to have fun; they called themselves the “fon” team, meaning fun father and son. The two shared many fun moments throughout the season. Michael said the curling and horseback riding challenges were his favourites, and Amari said his favourite challenge was rappelling down Niagara Falls, something he called a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Michael and Amari made it their goal on the show to represent their Indigenous ancestry and heritage and to prove they can do anything they set their minds to.
“It’s important to be yourself, take on challenges and calculated risks, and find the joy in what you’re doing,” said Michael.
Attached below is a clip from when Michael and Amari made it to the pit stop to see host Jon Montgomery at the end of the eighth episode.
(Video credit: CTV)
“We just want to express to the viewers who have reached out to us with their support; we’re really grateful for that, and we hope that we made Indigenous people proud with our portrayal of who we are and finding the native humor in everything we were doing,” stated Michael.
There are still five teams in the running for the grand prize of a $250,000 cash payout, a trip for two around the world, and two 2024 Chevrolet Equinox EV RS vehicles.
Episode nine of season 10 will air on Tuesday, September 3 at 8 p.m., and the finale will air on Tuesday, September 10 at 8 p.m. Both episodes, as well as previous episodes, can be streamed on CTV.