From the LA Times travel blog:The mother-son team of Margie Adams, 50, and Luke Adams, 22, (pictured on one leg of the race) were strong competitors throughout the 12 laps of the race and were leading for most of the finale until Luke, who is hearing impaired, got frustrated on the Road Block. The team finished third.
Q: Why did you decide to do the race?
Margie: I think the first reason was that Luke was the biggest fan of the show and really wanted to be on it. I think just for the adventure and the fun …Luke (through his interpreter Janet): When I was growing up, a lot of hearing people oppressed me. They would say that just because you couldn’t hear you couldn’t do things. That really frustrated me. When I told people I wanted to go on “The Amazing Race,” they gave me this look like: “You? But you’re deaf. They will never take you.” So I actually applied four times to be on the show. People would say stop doing it, you are going to disappoint yourself. I said I am going to get picked on the show and I will make it to the final three and people would laugh at me because I am deaf. I had a talk with my mom and on the first show we were so focused on the challenge. I wanted to be successful on that first leg.
Q: Luke, what type of response have you had from the deaf community?
Luke: At first, when the show started to air, deaf people were so happy about it and then, as the show continued on, there were more and more deaf people who became excited. When we made it to the final three, the deaf community was thrilled.
Q: Would you talk about the whole conflict with Kisha and Jen, where both Jen and Luke were running for the box and Luke accidentally elbowed Jen and she called him a bitch for doing that?
Margie: It was very shocking and it was very unfortunate. As a mother with Luke growing up as a deaf child, he experienced so much people laughing at him. We have had people call him retarded. We have had people throw food on him. Luke’s dad was in the Army, so we moved around a lot and experienced it [at every location]. People don’t understand that.
I tried to stay out of that conflict with Jen and Kisha. And I did. I just interpreted what was going but at the end when there was laughing and giggling when Luke was trying to express himself, it just all came back to me — just how rude people can be. I know now that Jen and Kisha - it was a nervous laughter, a tense situation and they didn’t intend to be insulting.
Jen and Kisha and Luke and I have resolved the issue and I understand that was not their intent at all. But you are exhausted. We were hungry. The night before we had slept outside in a tent in the rain. And they don’t show everything leading up to it. There were a lot of things going on day. Everybody has accepted their responsibility ane their part in that and we have apologized. I have the ultimate respect for Jen and Kisha, as athletes, women and people.
