Eh, really, really, late here, but I figured I'd comment anyway as I have strong opinions about this :P Several reasons why I don't think it was unfair for them to have a language advantage --

1) Anyone can learn another language. It's not like Tammy & Victor were the only ones capable of doing it. Ex. Tyler of Season 10 was white and spoke Japanese, giving his team an advantage.

2) The task in which you had to speak Chinese was not impossible for non-Chinese speakers. In fact, Kisha & Jen only spent 15 minutes doing it. It turned out to be only a 7 minute advantage for Tammy & Victor.

3) Everyone has some sort of advantage. Jaime & Cara were professional dancers who did the dancing task in Guilin. Jet & Cord of the more recent Season 16 were cowboys that did a roping challenge in Argentina. And you could really start saying that Kisha & Jen had an unfair advantage because they were athletic. Everyone on the Race brings with them certain skills, and all of those skills are fair game.

4) The language didn't even give them that much of an advantage. Tammy & Victor were able to communicate with their taxi driver in Chinese but still arrived at the massage Roadblock after the two other teams that left at the same time and did not speak Chinese. Also they only won 1 of the 3 legs in China, so victory was never handed over to them because they spoke Chinese.

5) Remember, the producers don't know that a team will make it to a certain point. Ex. In Season 16, Joe spoke Chinese and would have had the same advantage in China. However, his team was eliminated before the Race ever reached China. So there would have been no reason for the producers not to cast them or to change the route, etc. By the time Tammy & Victor had made it to China it would've been a too late to change a task.

6) This has nothing to do with the language, but it's not like Tammy & Victor were super rich and didn't need the money. First of all, nobody "needed" the money. They all had jobs and could support themselves. And Tammy & Victor's winnings went toward paying off their huge student loans. I think it's better that way because someone else may have just blown off the money.

Yes, they did. There I said it.

I know I am late as all get out, but with the new season being on, I was reminded of how it, despite it being early on, has already contrasted so much with the horrible season of "Tammy and Victor".

There is nothing wrong with having an advantage in language. The problem with this evil team is that they used it to keep the other teams behind. Not that I wanted Luke and Margie to win all that much either, because pretty much all the teams on that season sucked; just Tammy and Victor were despicable. Victor is a huge baby, and Tammy is a snob. To top it all off, they were incredibly dull. Like they really needed the million working their big law ridiculously overpriced salary.

Before anyone says I don't think lawyers should win this thing; think again. I don't think THESE corporate lawyers didn't need to win because they didn't need it. They probably never had or never will have to struggle.

I am soooo glad they are not on my screen anymore, and I can actually enjoy the Amazing Race again. They did a much better job casting this season -- overall the teams are much more interesting and exciting.

they didn't have an unfair advantage, so wat that they know how to speak chinese. u might as well say that evryone else had an unfair advantage because they all could hear and luke can't. and the races in China weren't the deciding factor. in the other countries they could have been elminated but they didn't the only reason why luke and margie didn't win was because luke couldn't remembr one of the boards, NOT because they couldn't speak chinese.

Advantage? Yes. Unfair? Hardly. Lucky? Probably.

There were teams who speak Spanish in other seasons that flew past everyone else and I don't see people complaining...

Knowing an extra language certainly has its advantages. It's not because they're Chinese, it's because they've learned the language.

Tyler in Amazing Race 9 spoke Japanese and that boosted his team to a victory in Japan and the race. Christina and Ronald both knew Chinese but that didn't help them win the race despite getting first in Taiwan.

If by the standard of "unfair advantage," then no teams should be allow to travel to a country where they know the language or no teams that know a foreign language should be allowed to compete.

I think that the 1600 SAT and a 170+ LSAT, plus a West Coast and East Coast Ivy League education may have been an unfair advantage.

Damn affirmative action---Damn you Bakke, Grutter, Michigan

I think that the 1600 SAT and a 170+ LSAT, plus a West Coast and East Coast Ivy League education may have been an unfair advantage.

Damn affirmative action---Damn you Bakke, Grutter, Michigan

Okay, I don't really get some comments of other people here. The issue is, did Tammy and Victor's capability of speaking the Chinese language affect their chances of winning? Okay. So first of all, was the last leg in China; or rather, was the Chinese language required during the last leg? NO. Okay, by that- the question to the issue was already answered. Now for some people that said they HAD AN ADVANTAGE because they got off the plane earlier, okay- they did get off the plane earlier than the two teams. So we now land on the pig task. Tammy and Victor came in SECOND. Now the Jet skiing. THEY CAME IN LAST. Now their advantage of getting OFF the plane was gone since they're the last team now. Now they arrived second at the surf board task since Jaime and Cara had the taxi-problem (which was totally not tammy and victor's fault). Okay, now you know the rest of the story. Now tell me, HOW DID THEIR ABILITY TO SPEAK CHINESE AFFECT THE RACE'S OUTCOME?

The article did not cover the fact that Tammy and Victor did not know how to swim too well, while the other teams did. Is that unfair advantage? Swimming seems to be involved in most Amazing Race challenges at least once, and sometimes it destroys a team or they overcome that and get by.

Also, the road block where they needed the Chinese Caligraphy written, the 2 other teams seem not to have any problems following them around to get what they needed. No one commented on the fact that Tammy and Victor finished 2nd when they did all the work for the other 2 teams, or at least probably cut their work in half if not more.

I'm a Chinese American and probably can't by in China because I don't speak any of it. I never learned to speak the language. They should be commended for learning 2 languages. As noted by other comments, other teams in the past have spoken other languages in countries they were in, but no one said anything because almost everyone on the show looked the same in the past.

Oh come on people!!!!
They r American, were born and raise in USA.
Just happened that they learned Chinese and traveled to China during the 2008 Beijing Olympics game.
It just like the other people who speak Spanish or other foreign language.
Remember the other race were in North America or EU.
Be a man, don't be such a bitch!
By the way the amazing race not just about running like a donkey

Whether they had the advantage of speaking Chinese or not, they were going to be the final 3 for that episode, because Lakisha had to PEE!!! Plus having an advantage def. isn't enough to win Amazing Race. Just look at how Lakisha and Jennifer are physically advanced from other teams. Also I've seen in the previous seasons there were teams who spoke the local languages but didn't get to win, proving my point.
Victor and Tammy have dominated the whole race and they deserve to win. And that's why I love the show because I see the best do win!!!

Out of the 11 legs, Tammy & Victor won two 3rd positions, three 2nd positions and five number 1 places. Their performance was consistent and they won fair and square.

Their Chinese language skill didn't help them that much. In the Chinese calligraphy scene, they were passed by other competitors. In the Chinese restaurant scene, they couldn't fully understand Beijing accent and made a mistake and had to go back to do it again.

They didn't gain advantage when the last Hawaii leg started.

This comment doesn't surprise me. It is so stereotype - A true American Joe should and must know only one language, i.e. almighty English. Otherwise he or she runs into danger of being portaited as an advantage taker, or more precisely, unamerican.

Wake up! Americans! We are the ONLY people in the world where majority of college students can not command a second tongue. We are so comfortable of this one-way communication and trample other cultures without even knowing it. We should be ashamed.

The language skill is not the unfair advantage of Tammy & Victor, it is the a slap on the face of some 100% Americans.

If Victor and Tammy were white and learned Chinese, would you still be asking this question?

cry me a river u complainers....they won! ur just hatin cuz the republicans didnt win

Yes, I think it was absolutely an unfair advantage. I don't think it was unfair that they knew the language. Other contestants have had language skills at all, but that challenges like the restaurant one were absolutely contingent in being able to speak the language and that the leg in China just happened to be twice as long as in any other country. When the race is switching to different countries, it helps to even the playing field where one team may have a leg up on any certain language.

Each team has its strengths and talents. When the game happens to favor some, you can't say they have "unfair" advantages. Tammy and Victor were the most consistent team and deserved the win. Though they grew up in America, their "investment" in learning Chinese langaguae from young paid off in the race.
... Let's move on to the next series...

Let's cut through the bull...

Yes, they did have an unfair advantage. If one pit stop were in China, I'd describe it as simply good luck for Victor and Tammy... BUT considering the large number of tasks done in China since the teams had to stay there so long, there is NO WAY anyone can say that they had no advantage. "Unfair" or "fair" is debatable-- I think it was unfair... but at least admit that they had a clear advantage given to them by the show producers.

By the way, I think Victor is HOT!

Tammy and Victor were very synchronized team, all the attention brought to a non-issue is an unfair distraction from their intelligence, respect, agility that they maintained throughout the race. They one like 3 legs before China. There is no reason to change a preset race once it's already in progress, if anything, that would provide an unfair bias. The world looks so different from the majority eyes. Questioning their qualification based on inherent ability proves just that.

In the words of Jodi: "Blonde women in foreign countries can kind of get away with murder. We are going to use that to our advantage."...they still let them participate. So unfair!

ah yes, never can attribute the success of minorities to their skills or talents... always have to be something else driving it.

heaven forbid these uppity minority folk actually threaten the dominance of the white majority

You should be careful that your comments are not perceived as racist. If it were a Spanish speaking team that won in Spain or French speaking team that won in France, I am not so sure you would be so quick to write such an article. There are people outside Chicago who don't necessarily find this perspective to be insightful or interesting.

I'm a chinese speaker and China traveler, I wanted to comment on the clear advantage to have the language skills in China. (I don't really have an opinion on whether giving the advantage is "right" or not.) As others have pointed out, Tammy and Victor took advantage of their language skills by asking for favors along the way (e.g., telling the calligraphers to do their stamps first, asking drivers of other contestants' taxi to drive slowly, getting airline workers to put competitors in the back of the plane). It's not clear whether any of these things actually happened, but they clearly tried to maximize the advantage. Also, you really can't underestimate the advantages from knowing about where you are. The one thing that struck me, having traveled in China extensively last year, is that understanding the taxi system would have been be a big edge. Cara and Jaime, Kisha and Jen were constantly frustrated by not being able to catch cabs in Beijing. What they didn't know is that cab drivers are ticketed by police for picking up people in the street. You have to be at a designated corner or stand to catch the cab, and that's why so many empty cabs simply would pass on by. Also, a small example of the language issue: one assumes that the clues are provided in English pinyin transliteration of the Chinese placenames, so in leg 11, all the teams ran around with a clue saying "jie" which means "street" in Chinese. Tammy and Victor would know that this word is pronounced "jeah" which would make a huge difference when speaking to a Chinese speaker. So when you saw Kisha wandering around asking where the "jee" is, it was total nonsense.

It is hard to calculate how much advantage was gained because you really don't really know whether but for the language skills, they would have gotten lost at the opera house like all the other teams did; or that they would have had less success in transfers by taxi, etc. For example, they were in second to last place when they came out of the Courmarant fishing challenge in Guilin, but caught up with the calligraphy which clearly favored a chinese speaker. On the other hand, the short brothers would probably have lost that leg anyway since they had a 4 hour penalty that they would never have been able to surmount. But for someone to say that it is was not a significant advantage is definitely wrong.

Being able to speak one of the most popular languages in the world of course is an advantage. It's not only an advantage in amazing race, but in a lot of other aspects of life as well.

It is definitely an *advantage*, but I fail to understand why it is an 'unfair' advantage. Every American is allowed to learn Chinese, it is not just limited to V&T last time I checked.

Being able to speak English is definitely an advantage as well, so does that make everyone has an *unfiar* advantage on Luke?

It's like saying it is fair for the taller American to compete in basketball with the shorter Chinese, but it is an unfair advantage that the shorter Chinese compete with the taller American in gymnastics, therefore we need a minimum height in gymnastics.

Some people just amazed me in their ability to justify themselves to be a racist.

Paige,

Yes, the ability to speak the local language is a definite advantage. Having said that, each team had relatively equal opportunities throughout their lifetimes to acquire different language skills. It should be noted that the Amazing Race is held across many different countries, all having different native tongues. Just because only one team happened to be fluent in a language relevant for the race, just means they were better prepared.

I'd also like to add that Mandarin Chinese is the most spoken language in the entire world by a very large margin. It's not exactly a rare skill-set to be fluent in it. Given the odds, if one were to compete in a global race; it would make good sense to at least attain a rudimentary knowledge of the language.

Hi - this is Sarah from last season's team Terence & Sarah. Someone forwarded me this thread given that it dicusses a topic very close to my heart...

We went into the Race believing that my facility for languages was one of our best assets. It turned out that I spoke fluently the languages of the backdrops for our first 3 episodes (Brazil, Brazil, Bolivia) - and we didn't win a single one of them. In Bolivia, actually, it set us back twice - first, a local woman had agreed to travel around with us for the whole day and help us... so I was translating the clues to her, but just in summary. So I missed the part where we had to walk to the wooden bicycles instead of take a taxi. Once we realized what we had done, we had to have the taxi return us to where we got in and start over. Then during the wrestling challenge, I was the only one who could communicate with my cholita, and that was precisely why I was disqualified and had to repeat the challenge (there was no talking allowed)

In short, my opinion is that Tammy & Victor were a phenomenally strong team, and as much as I love Margie & Luke (they are INCREDIBLE people), this race was not stolen from them because Tammy & Victor spoke the language in China. I watched the finale with Luke and he was bawling the whole time the surfboard task was being shown... I think it's safe to say this was an AWESOME race that really came down to that one final challenge.

good job and congratulations to tammy and victor! i am soooo proud of them, the very first asian-american to win the amazing race! No one deserves to win the race but them, they are nice and never bitched anyone during the race. A true asian spirit!

Is it unfair to Asian competitors to race in Europe because all other competitors are of European descent?

Reply to "And its not like these two attorneys needed the money, the work for biglaw firms and make bank, how much more greedy could attorneys get, now they have to step over deaf people for more money....HIYAAAAAH!"

This is not the The Amazing Charity, or the Karl Marx bonanza. Tammy and Victor fair and square without violating ANY rules.

I do sense an undercurrent of racism in many who are upset by Tammy and Victor's win. Well, you're just going to have to live with it. Welcome to 21st century.

errr luke cant hear, so there was no way for him to do that dancing task......where's your outrage on that one? Jamie and Cara could do it, but there was no chance luke could......unfair advantage is it not? while all the other teams had a choice, margie and luke really didn't.

how was it late enough to give them a "significant boost?"

they were beasting every leg except one......they were top 3 every leg before that minus the one exception.....

if all they did was hang around and barely make it thru, then all of a sudden started cruising in china then i might understand, it didnt matter if they went to japan, or some other language where they didn't speak chinese, result would've been the same.

if you watched, all the other teams basically piggy backed off their chinese skills and followed them around for an entire leg.....then jamie and cara took the cab right after tammy and victor told him/here where to go.

if you look at the interviews, keisha and jenn got that speak chinese task done in 15 minutes...which is the same time it took for the other task, so it wouldnt have mattered.

First of all, congratulations to victor and Tammy. I am really glad that they won the race. Although, I would be happy also if it were Margie and Luke. But definitely not to Cara and Jaime who had been bitchy all throughout the race.

Victor and Tammy may have had the language advantage in China but that was not enough to say that they do not deserve to win. Others may have advantage on skills or talent, which Victor and Tammy do not have but it's just a matter of luck also. Actually, they were kind enough in one task of doing Chinese calligraphy and have to find for the direction... they have guided the other teams (Margie and Luke, Kisha and Jen) up to the end of the task. In the end, the three teams arrived at the pit stop all at the same time. Victor and Tammy were not declared as the winner of that leg. There was a time also when Jaime and Cara had taken advantage of the two lawyers when they rode the cab after victor gave the direction to the driver. Anyway, I am satisfied with the result of this season. All is fair and square. It just so happened that everything conspires for the winners’ advantage. I am looking forward to the next season.. =)

Just want to note that in The Amazing Race Asia (TARA), all the participants are only allowed to speak English. Participants should not speak their local language even if they are in their own country.

Captain Obvious says:

-Mirna and Charla were in TWO series of the Amazing Race, their season(5) and All-Stars and guess what? Mirna spoke fluent Spanish and used it all the time when they went to South America and they LOST both times.

-Last season, Terence and Sarah...Sarah spoke FLUENT Portuguese and Spanish and used it all the time in Brazil(where Portuguese is the main language spoken)and Bolivia. Oh yeah, they lost too.

The fact of the matter is that yes, Tammy and Victor used their ability to speak Chinese in China, but umm...yeah, to my knowledge, I also saw 2 other teams follow them to in the writing challenge ALL the way to the finish line and it became a footrace between the sisters, Tammy and Victor and Luke and Margie where the sisters won.

I know what...let's not allow any contestants on the show that have any advantages as Spectre said as well. If anybody is more fit, stronger, smarter, faster, taller, shorter, deaf, etc...let's have CBS ban them from being contestants.

Examples from recent memory-

AR14-Oh no, lets not let the sisters on because they're former college athletes! They can win every athletic challenge and hey, the former cheerleaders...let's not let them in because they can memorize a dance routine better than anybody else like it's second nature. Oh yes, both teams lost.

AR 13-Leg 9 (Kazakhstan → Russia), Toni and Dallas...Dallas had to carry those heavy bags of flour. Oh no, let's not let him in the race, he was too strong and fit compared to other competitors. Oh yeah, they lost too.

The hippies in the AR 9, final challenge(memory test). No, let's not let these guys in because they're really smart compared to their competitors in the finals, the 'jocks'. The hippies got there 2nd and finished before the jocks. Yes, they won! Oh no, let's cry foul now. They had a mental advantage over everybody because they graduated from Harvard and Stanford!!!

In Hawaii, everything was DEAD even and they left the jetski challenge LAST unless CBS pulled some fantastic editing that I never saw. The fact is that the BEST team that day won and congrats to them.

Do I even have to mention all of the other past contestants that have spoke other languages(and have USED them in the countries visited)and not won? Or does Paige Wiser need to be Wiser and take the foot out of her mouth before being so ignorant?

As I've stated in other sites, I don't see anything wrong with having a language advantage. All the teams come from different backgrounds, some are more athletic, some are more knowledgeable of other world cultures, some speak more than one language, some know how to sign, the list goes on. There should be absolutely NO BIAS with what locations the race goes to no matter who the competitors are. If you call this unfair, then I would say it was unfair for Luke that he could not even communicate with anyone but his mother in every destination.

This is a race around the world and exploring all the different cultures in the world. Americans include far more than just English speaking people. I don't see any rules broken here.

That was one heavy pig. Nobody should have won.

Honestly, I think people should really stop whining about the fact that Tammy & Victor had a clear advantage. Both of them were presumably born in the USA and grew up in the US. When they were speaking Mandarin, they clearly had an English accent and could not enunciate properly (eg: activity where they had to order food).

Tammy & Victor were brought up in a family and culture that values the fact that subsequent generations should learn their own language. They are obviously a Chinese family who's parents took the time to teach their children (Tammy & Victor) how to speak Chinese. Any other family can do this. Take an Italian family for example. An Italian mother and father can teach their children to speak Italian and Russian parents could teach their children to speak Russian and so on. It is absolutely true that a lot of newer generations have already forgotten their native language and really, that's too bad. There are many cultures who still highly value the ability to speak their own native language and for the most part, the Chinese is one such example.

No its totally fair to all the other contestants to have a challenge in which a chineese team has to speak chineese...what's wrong with that? And its not like these two attorneys needed the money, the work for biglaw firms and make bank, how much more greedy could attorneys get, now they have to step over deaf people for more money....HIYAAAAAH!

nothing stops anyone who attends a major university in America from enrolling in Chinese class.

it's been available at schools like Illinois, tOSU, Michigan, etc. for at least a generation.

nowadays it's available at many high schools and smaller colleges.

and they don't require you to have Chinese ancestry to enroll.

hellooo?!!! all three teams departed for hawaii on the SAME PLANE, ie they started on equal footing again once they reached hawaii, so any advantage conferred from their win in china wld not have been consequential for the final leg?

Ms. Weiser is definitely over thinking this whole thing. Its makes me mad to hear ignorant Americans raise pathetic issues just because a couple of Asian Americans won. Big WHOOP! Victor and Tammy deserved to win fair and square. They're smart, intelligent and worked hard as a team. Unlike Jamie and Cara the ignorant cheerleaders who were bitchy towards everyone throughout the leg of the race and racist towards locals and cab drivers in Asia. I'm glad Victor and Tammy won, I'm proud of them.

Luke and his mom would have won if he only got the last puzzle quickly. He only had one mistake but couldnt find it. If he had gone through the puzzle as quick as Victor, they would have been the champs.

So did Tammy and Victor have an advantage in China? Yes, of course. But was that the deciding factor to their winning? Absolutely no.

I am SO MAD that Tammy & Victor won. It was SO UNFAIR that they stayed in China for two legs of the race!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They had an unfair advantage. Period. They could read, write, and speak a language that no one else could. That is enough to be unfair.

I totally agree! It's so unfair that Jaime and Cara are white and speak English. Look at how they beasted that leg in Hawaii.

Hi..I think Tammy and Victor were great and I'm very glad they won..we all have advantages at times..it was theirs this time..Job well Done!!

The reason Tammy and Victor won was due to Luke's memory loss in the final challenges!! Sure, speaking Mandarin was helpful but not the determining factor!!

"One thing I have not seen anywhere is the absolute unselfish sportsmanship of Jamie and Cara. They worked with Luke and Margie and at the end with a million on the line took long enough to help Luke out."

Oh please!!! Cara and Jamie unselfish sportsmanship? They, particularly Jamie, were awful to people for most of the race. Jamie routinely snapped at, ordered about, and berated everyone from taxi drivers to locals who were unable to--or chose not to--help her. In fact, in the very episode cited as an example of her sportsmanship, a taxi dispatcher directed her taxi driver to "tell your people I'm not their personal concierge." It was not Jamie's idea to help Luke and Margie. Margie directed Luke to work with Cara and Jamie - but not until after it was clear that neither had a likely shot at first place!

Would Ms. Weiser make a fuss if a team were fluent in some European language? I doubt it. Sounds like a matter of sour grapes because 'inferior' Asians won the race fair and square.

And Tammy and Victor were far nicer people than those bitchy cheerleaders who should never outside the US again with their ugly American attitudes.

I totaly agree. If the last leg was not in China, they might had been eliminated. Some might say that they arrived in Hawaii in the same time. But they were first to leave the pit stop they got to the airport first and they were first in line, they got off the plane first. In China Tammy was telling the lady to put the other teams back of the plane, it was in the episode 11. They clearly had advantage.

Do the people planning the race route (and/or devising the challenges) know anything about the contestants when they plan the race? If they do, "unfair advantages" are an issue. If they don't, "unfair advantages" are just the luck of the draw. (As others have pointed out, there have been other episodes where contestants had the "luck" of a language advantage.)

If "Amazing Race" starts changing challenges mid-game because dumb luck might favor one team, they've got more trouble than if they leave challeges alone. Should they avoid athletic challenges when they have teams of athletes? Avoid dancing challenges if a team includes somebody who's a good dancer?

If you considered being "skilled" an unfair advantage, you have to throw half the challenges on "Race." Or, start demanding that the show only cast people without an skills or language knowledge. If I want to watch a show about unskilled buffoons, I'll watch "Big Brother."

Yes, Victor & Tammy got lucky with that challenge, but ask any athlete: You can't make rules against being lucky. Simple as that.

I don't think it was an advantage in the final leg, but having several legs (it was more than just China, but Thailand too) building up to the final where they were able to get flight attendants and other locals (including those handling the detours and roadblocks) to help them put other teams at a disadvantage and put them first was key. They did ask locals where the opera house was and that is how they found it so fast.
I would have a similar problem if there were 4 weeks of central American countries and there was only one team fluent in Spanish. There were 2 weeks in Russia too that would have been easier if any of the teams were fluent in Russian, but 4 weeks at the end of the race seems to be poor planning on the part of the producers, especially when they then choose a team fluent in Asian languages to be on the show.
I liked Tammy and Victor and they are deserving to win, but agree they are not as likable, as I like to see a team win where the money would change their lifes. Victor and Tammy having been to China for the Olympics and being lawyers tells you that they really didn't need the money, but wanted to do it for other reasons, and I guess that is ok too.

Tammy and Victor had a very big advantage. They spoke a language that is very difficult plus they had visited the country several times. They were good players but should have been in one of your shows that took place in some other part of the work.

I don't think being Chinese was the decisive factor that helped Tammy/Victor win. Yes, in the China legs...they were 2nd (first three teams actually came in together), 3rd (non-pit-stop leg) and then first. But then this was not out of the ordinary, because if you think about it, in the non-China legs, including the final race to the finish line, they won 4 out of 9 legs and were outside the top 3 only in one leg - the Romanian mountain ridge disaster. So they really are a team of good racers and dominated this season, much like Nick and Starr did last season. The best team won.

They had the same advantage that SEVERAL other racers had. In past Amazing Races, racers have spoken: French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese and Arabic, plus others I'm probably forgetting... Also, as someone else mentioned, there have been people experienced with dancing, not to mention skydiving, rock climbing, teaching, bungee jumping, swimming and driving certain vehicles in certain conditions (standard transmission; sand, snow).

But they left the jetski challenge LAST, so I guess the old Hawaiian surfboards speak Chinese and told Victor which order to put them in, right...?

I guess the next Amazing Race should have a bunch of babies who have been kept in isolation for the first few years of their lives so that no one can have any kind of advantage...?

I don’t think it affected anything. Tammy and Victor were the only ones that managed to find the elusive clue box relatively quickly after the Opera House, make-up stop. If there had been a billboard in Chinese over the door and a giant arrow, then maybe.

I don't think Tammy & Victor had an unfair advantage during the China portion of the race. Cara and Jaime were NFL cheerleaders. They can memorize a dance routine easier than the other teams yet they sucked during the ballroom dance challenge in China. You can say that their "skill" could have been an unfair advantage but since they sucked at it no one commented.

Another note, just because Tammy & Victor are Chinese doesn't mean that they can speak it. Also, it just so happens that they know Mandarin, a dialect of Chinese. There are many dialects: Cantonese, Fujian, Chiu Chau, Taiwanese, Shanghainese, Toisan, etc. They used the language skills to their advantage, just like any other skill.

I'm glad they won. They deserved it!

I disagree. Yes they had an advantage but it wasn't unfair. It just so happened that they could speak Chinese. If someone spoke Spanish and they went to Spain or any other latin country they would have done the same. Speaking Chinese was just an advantage for them. It's not their fault that others can't speak it. They're Chinese and they won it fairly. I liked them! If anyone wants to go on Amazing Race, I advise them to learn a new langauge because they go to places like asia, europe, africa, and latin countries.

I agree that once they got to Hawaii that they were all on equal footing and had the same chances to perform. One thing I have not seen anywhere is the absolute unselfish sportsmanship of Jamie and Cara. They worked with Luke and Margie and at the end with a million on the line took long enough to help Luke out. They had done this several times through out the race and I think should be recognized for doing such.

Compare this to LaKisha and Jennifer. They were bad sports and selfish all along. I was glad when they finally left.

Yeah, I thought the same thing for awhile, especially because there was a task that was language-related, which I have rarely seen on the show. And yes, of course, everything, and yes, it gave them an advantage. That's the way it goes. I really didn't want them to win,but figured all along that they would, so I'm dealing.

But more importantly, the finale was my favorite episode EVER, mostly because it made me laugh my ass off. The scenes in Hawaii (Finally! People speak English!!) where they encountered the "local" mentality (which I love with all my heart, btw) just made my day. What a perfect way to end the race, with drivers and bystanders who just don't care that you're in a race. That's the Hawaii way. ROFL!

Yes,

Ms. Paige Wisler you bring up a good point but you quite easily forget that in every Amazing Race certain advantages and disadvantages take place for all the teams. Of course, did you ever think that sometimes physical fitness becomes a factor especially during physical challenges. Should Amazing Race factor that in???? Age has always played a factor as well. Only one couple over 60 got as far as fourth place. Should they make the race more age friendly??? There are so many factors you conveniently left out which now you have tarnished the fact that Victor and Tammy are the first racers of Asian American descent to win the Amazing Race.

Finally, did you ever think that Jaime and Cara used sexism (looks) to help them along the way???

All 3 teams were on equal footing once they reached Hawaii. From there, the team that had performed the best over the course of the Race won.

Hi. I don think it's fair for u to say that tammy and victor have unfair advantage. The race destination is predetermined. Imagine wat u might felt when someone say ur victory is nothing more than an unfair advantage. I think it's more to luck when it comes to destination.

It is better to look at it, as, being multicultural/multilingual gives you a big advantage in any situation..