Having been unraveled as the season 19's winners, Ernie Halvorsen and Cindy Chiang open up about their thoughts on winning the competition and their plans ahead.
- Dec 13, 2011
AceShowbiz - Ernie Halvorsen and Cindy Chiang are sharing their thoughts over their experience on season 19 of "The Amazing Race". Revealed as the winners on the Sunday, December 11 night's finale broadcast, the engaged duo revealed their lowest moments during the competition and their most difficult task.
Talking to PEOPLE, Ernie first opened up, "One of the lowest points was definitely in Malawi when Andy and Tommy had beat us to the finish line. We were just so devastated." He added, "We thought we'd done everything in our power to beat everyone at the race. And it just never panned out for us. We didn't use our express pass. We didn't use U-turns."
Cindy chimed in, "The wind was just out of our sails that day. I had, unfortunately, gotten hurt during the roadblock cask, and it was really difficult to run." She continued on, "I was trying to do my best and keep spirits high, but it was a tough day for us."
Asked about their strangest or most difficult task, Ernie said, "Cindy was probably very upset to do the bodybuilding challenge." Cindy then took over to explain, "I didn't want to expose myself like that. All the women were in the dressing room like, 'Oh my goodness, I can't believe we're about to do this.' "
On their thoughts about winning the race, Ernie admitted, "We just feel elated and relieved. We're just looking forward. We're very optimistic and hopeful for what we can do now that we've won." He further gushed, "If we could do the whole thing over again without being paid, of course we'd do it."
Cindy was also thankful for the experience. "We're excited to have shared this moment with our family and our friends. The experience was invaluable," she shared. "Just getting to see all these places - literally, there are so few people in the world who got to experience what we got to experience."
As for what they will do with their winning prize, Cindy elaborated on their plan to use it to establish an organization to help people across the world. "Ernie and I are actually planning to use the winnings to start a business," she said. "We really want to be able to help provide education for children in developing markets."
"We were running around on the race, and we saw all these kids on the street who weren't in school. We came back and we researched and learned that education is not free everywhere. Even public education costs some kind of fee per year. Education is kind of the thing that alleviates poverty."
