草莓污视频导航

Sept. 16, 2022

Olympian swaps kinesiology classes for The Amazing Race Canada

With 1.7 million viewers tuning into his adventures this summer, here's how alumnus Jesse Cockney has been dealing with the fame
Jesse and Marika, of Canmore, on The Amazing Race
Siblings Jesse and Marika compete in The Amazing Race

We鈥檙e sitting on a very public patio in Canmore when I ask recent kinesiology grad Jesse Cockney, BKin鈥22, how fame has flipped his world; from relatively anonymous student to cult-following stardom.

Since early July, a record number of fans have been tuning in on Tuesdays to watch 10 two-person teams tussle it out on The Amazing Race Canada, a competition that鈥檚 zipped across the country. From whipping up crowds in a 1980s-like aerobic dance-off in Fernie, B.C., and whizzing down Alberta鈥檚 Kananaskis River in inflatable canoes, to a tandem paraglide swoop over the Okanagan and a build-a-bath-bomb session in Picton, Ont. 鈥 audiences have been laughing, weeping and whooping it up for their favourite duos since the suspended series (COVID-19 forced the teams to wait two years to shoot the 11 episodes) returned.

Marika coaxing "her" dog at the agility centre

Marika coaxing "her" dog at the agility centre.

Glancing around Main Street, the ever-humble Cockney says he gets recognized, 鈥渢ops,鈥 two or three times a week. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 really nothing,鈥 dismisses the Olympian, who had a 15-year career in cross-country skiing (sprint events) by the time he was 28.

By then, he鈥檇 competed in two Olympic Games (2014 and 2018), so perhaps the 32-year-old was already comfortable with notoriety when he found a camera focused on him and his younger sister, actress and hoop dancer Marika Sila, for five to six hours every day during the month-long shoot in May. 聽

Unflappable, Cockney, of all 20 participants, is the one to always appear calm, focused and measured, no matter if he鈥檚 having to perform a burlesque number (leg one) or learning to hoot like an owl (leg two).

鈥淭hat鈥檚 what sport has taught me,鈥 explains the retired sprint racer, who has just begun his Master of Management at the Haskayne School of Business. 鈥淭o stay calm and trust your process. Our mantra was . . . 鈥榮low is smooth and smooth is fast.鈥欌

With less than a week to go 鈥 the finale airs Sept. 20 鈥 will the brother/sister Inuvialut duo be the lucky ones to skip away with two around-the-world tickets, $250,000 in cash and two Chevrolet Silverado ZR2s?

Even though he obviously knows the outcome, Cockney is giving nothing away. Not a smirk, not a grin or wink 鈥斅爊ada.

With barely time to debrief after every day鈥檚 adventures (some exhausting days had the teams flying between two or three destinations), what lesson did the siblings learn that allowed them to claw their way back from eighth place to becoming contenders to win the top prize?

鈥淲e learned we were better off choosing the more objective challenge,鈥 explains Cockney, using their experience during a visit to London, Ont., as an example. Competitors in The Amazing Race Canada are often given a choice of tasks to complete. In London, they had to choose between an 鈥淎nimate鈥 challenge (which required one of them to don a motion-capture suit to recreate moves from an animated movie, with the other acting as 鈥渄irector鈥) and one dubbed 鈥淎viate鈥 (where the challenge was for the two to reattach a propeller to a Cessna 150 plane).

Initially, they chose Animate and Marika put on the suit. It didn鈥檛 work so, stumped, desperate and stuck on repeat, the siblings eventually opted to bail out of Animate by cashing in a precious 鈥淓xpress Pass,鈥 which allowed them to skip it and move on.

鈥淎s the race continued, we learned to trust each other more,鈥 says Cockney. 鈥淲e hadn鈥檛 lived under the same roof for 15 years, so learning to rely on each other again, and our skills, took a while.鈥

Of all the challenges 鈥 from learning to sign at the Sir James Whitney School for the Deaf to guiding dogs at an agility school 鈥 the toughest one for Cockney was, indeed, Animate.

鈥淲hat you don鈥檛 see on TV are all the parking hassles and the trouble we had navigating London鈥檚 one-way streets, plus, that was the day that the two COVID teams got reintroduced (several participants had to leave the show due to COVID, only to rejoin the competition later), which threw us a bit,鈥 says Cockney.

鈥淎nd, that challenge relied on me being able to communicate every move to Marika and to remain patient . . . which, frankly, I failed to do.鈥

Even though he obviously knows the outcome, Cockney is giving nothing away.

As for the easiest challenge? Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was one that returned Cockney to his element.

鈥淭he biathlon at the Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre (near Vernon, B.C.) 鈥 no doubt about it,鈥 he says. 鈥淚 was having so much fun, I just wanted to keep skiing.鈥澛

If sport taught Cockney how to harness focus and a calm demeanour, his studies at 草莓污视频导航 have shown him the power of reading a question correctly.

鈥泪苍 the Race, you have to read the clue so carefully to know what you can and cannot do,鈥 he explains. 鈥淎ll the directions you need to get through a challenge are in your clue, so you can鈥檛 be careful enough. It鈥檚 better to just do it right once or twice than try 10 or 15 times, all the while hoping it works out.

鈥淓arly in my undergrad, I was an impatient test taker . . . at some point, I remember realizing that some question was not asking, 鈥榃hich is the right answer?鈥 but, 鈥榃hich is not the right answer?鈥 I learned to slow down after that.鈥

Just as in ski racing, Cockney, over the course of his undergrad, discovered the power of preparation, but admits that valuable skill wasn鈥檛 applicable when it came to the Race.

鈥淪ome teams are saying they鈥檙e learning languages or they鈥檙e beefing up in certain areas but, frankly, you have no idea what the challenges or situations are going to be,鈥 he says. 鈥淪o, I think (the Race is) impossible to train for . . . except: learn to pack light and run with your knapsack. That would be helpful.鈥

And for those who may wish to apply for a future season, Cockney has this advice: 鈥淗ighlight your relationship and stress why your story is worth telling. Try to be yourself and have fun!鈥