Best friends that met through Royal Winnipeg Ballet to appear on Amazing Race Canada

Two best friends who met at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School nearly 25 years ago are set to compete in the latest season of The Amazing Race Canada.

Catherine Wreford Ledlow from Winnipeg and Craig Ramsay from Windsor, Ont., have teamed up to compete in the expedition of a lifetime.

Manitoba’s Jon Montgomery, Olympic gold medallist and the host of the show, said Wreford Ledlow’s and Ramsay’s training as Broadway performers will be helpful to them during the race.

“If that has prepared them for anything, it’s prepared them to perform under pressure,” he said in an interview with CTV Morning Live on Tuesday.

Montgomery said the team has also faced challenges, noting they have an interesting backstory.

“I don’t know how many people are intimately familiar with the stories of the racers yet, but their particular story is wild, and so worth getting to know. So you will discover that,” he said.

The eighth season of the show comes after a break caused by the pandemic.

“We were waylaid. We were cast aside perhaps for a couple of summers as we got back to some normalcy here. But, we’re ready to go, we’re exploring our own backyard. We’re showcasing why Canadians have so much to be proud of both in where they come from and who calls it home,” Montgomery said.

He added that this year’s racers have been waiting for years to be on the show, which has fuelled their competitive spirits.

“If you want to get people frothing at the mouth in terms of a competitive nature – lock them up and tell them that they can't do the Amazing Race for two years, you just have to wait a little bit,” he said.

As for whether the racers will be travelling to Manitoba in this year’s competition, Montgomery said you’ll have to tune in to find out.

The new season of The Amazing Race Canada premieres on Tuesday on CTV.

- With files from CTV’s Nicole Dube.