In the two-hour The Amazing Race episode “Gotta Put Your Sole Into It”, the race continues in St. Tropez, France, and Provence, France. The teams face off against one another in the second head-to-head competition of Season 30. Some viewers are surprised that former NBA basketball players Shawn Marion and Cedric Ceballos are still in. Shawn admits that the stuff their doing in the Race doesn’t compare to training for the NBA. “Not even close,” says Shawn. “It’s very grueling.”
While being 6’7″ tall is helpful to win the NBA Slam Dunk Contest, as Cedric did in 1992 (blindfolded!), being that tall and weighing 280lbs. is a disadvantage on The Amazing Race. (He probably weighed a good 60 lbs. less when he made that dunk 25 years ago, see below.) Cedric said after coming in last at Morocco, “The little, smaller, younger kids ran circles around me, but my mind was way ahead of them – ten times ahead of them.” Cedric vows to take advantage of the mental challenges. And that’s a lot coming from a guy who survived three consecutive heart attacks. Cedric says getting through the physical parts of the race proves that his doctors did a great job of “putting the tin man back together again.” The Amazing Race airs Wednesdays at 8pm on CBS.
