It was tough for Shawn King to watch the second episode of the new season of The Amazing Race Canada on Tuesday night. Even though he was surrounded by friends and family, it was the episode in which King, president and CCO of Halifax-based Extreme Group, and his wife, Jen, were eliminated from the fast-paced reality show.
An old shoulder injury reared its head as King was taking part in a surfing challenge in Tofino, B.C. for the show. He was subsequently taken to a local hospital to get checked out and the extent of his injury forced the couple into a tough decision about whether or not they could continue the race.
“[Jen and I] debated every possible option,” King told Marketing the day after the episode aired on CTV. They weighed taking a penalty on the surfing challenge versus returning to the beach so Jen could complete the challenge of building a chair from driftwood.
But getting to the point where they could even make a decision about how to proceed took a long time, said King. He had been given sedatives in the hospital and it took him some time to come around, he said. “We had actually tried once to get up and go [back to the beach] and Jen had to hold me up, then I got sick and it was just a horrible scene,” said King. “So in the end, we pretty much had run out of time and we wouldn’t even have been able to make it back.”
Another consideration was the probability of King’s shoulder injury coming back later in the race. Once it dislocates, “it’s really weak, and it was inevitable that at some point it was going to catch up to me,” he said.
In the end, they decided they could not continue.
King originally injured his shoulder when he was about 19. He was weightlifting and recalls his shoulder “just popped out.”
The episode in which the injury came back was filmed in late April, but watching it on Tuesday night “sort of brought it all back.” At least King was in good company for the screening. In addition to his friends and family, he watched with some of the other teams from the show: married globetrotters Laura Takahashi and Jackie Skinner, entrepreneurial siblings Sukhi and Jinder Atwal, and occupational therapist Shahla Kara (who was eliminated, along with her teammate Nabeela Barday, in the first week’s episode).
King said he’ll watch the rest of the season. While he and Jen have a loose idea of how the race went for their competitors (and know which team won), he finds it interesting to see how the other teams ran the race. “When you’re in it, you don’t see that, you’re just so focused on your own race,” he said. “It’ll be fun to watch the experience and how it unfolded for everybody else — especially now that we know them and what they’re like.”
Any chance King would do the show again if given the opportunity? There was no hesitation before he answered, “Absolutely.”
King shared his thoughts on the show in the August 2014 issue of Marketing.
