An Okotoks athlete isn't feeling defeated despite being eliminated from a CBC reality show.
Chris Cederstrand, a husband, father and adaptive athlete, and his fellow competitors on Team Red were cut from contention on the March 16 episode of Canada's Ultimate Challenge.
"I'd just like to thank everybody in Okotoks for all the support," he said. "Throughout my sledge career and everything this town has been unbelievable to me and from the bottom of my heart I can't thank everybody here enough for continuing and always continuing to have my back regardless of what challenges I'm out there trying to do or whatever I'm trying to accomplish."
The show, which sees the country transformed into a giant obstacle course, began narrowing down the competitor pool at the beginning of the month, with the teams totalling the least amount of points falling off the leaderboard.
After the elimination of water polo Olympian Waneek Horn-Miller's Team Yellow the episode prior, Cederstrand's team, coached by legendary sprinter Donovan Bailey, was sitting in last place.
Then they hit another wall: Bailey came down with COVID.
While communicating with his team virtually, the coach named Cederstand team captain, which was unsurprising given Bailey consistently showed his faith in the Okotokian, even protecting him in an earlier player swap.
Cederstrand said he's been confident in leadership roles before, including as a member of the National Para Hockey Team, and this was no different.
"For him to see that quality in me and trust that quality in me was something that I took a great deal of pride in," he said.
Faced with the prospect of heading home from Thousand Falls, Ont., Cederstrand did everything he could to rally his team.
After a disappointing finish in the episode's first solo challenge, Cederstrand and teammate Skylar Le Blanc were forced to make up ground in a tandem kayak challenge.
Despite being far ahead of their competitors and collecting numerous tags which gave them credit towards their time, a malfunctioning rudder and unfortunate capsize set them back.
"It was a tough pill to swallow because we knew what we needed to do and we had the ability to do, it was just unfortunate that we had a malfunction that happened that was out of our control," Cederstrand said.
In the midst of the capsize, the athlete was forced to remove his prosthetic leg and pass it to his teammate in order to get back into the boat.
"It made for some good TV," he laughed.
Although Cederstrand left the competition earlier than he would have liked, he still calls it a success.
"I'm teaching people not to judge a book by its cover," he said. "The only limitations are the limitations you put on yourself and for me to be able to go out there and compete with able-bodied athletes – I hope that accomplishes something where people can see that you can go out there and regardless of what you have going on, if you have have the willpower and want and compete level to be able to do it, you can go out there and do it."
Cederstrand has kept up with the episodes post elimination, rooting on all the friends he made.
"We have a group of people that really created some extremely strong bonds and so being able to watch them compete, regardless of who wins the show, it's cool to see how those dynamics continue to move forward with them," he said.
