Oakville's Tina Liao Wins The Amazing Race Canada

Tina Liao of Oakville and her twin sister Liz have won season 12 of The Amazing Race Canada. The sisters took the title in the season finale, after dozens of challenges spread across seven provinces, 20 cities and thousands of kilometres.

It is a first on two counts. No pair of sisters and no Asian Canadian duo had ever won the race before, and both sisters said that mattered to them. "Growing up, we didn't see many people on TV who looked like us," Tina said. "Being able to put ourselves out there and to inspire people, who can resonate with our story is so special."

The win did not look likely for most of the finale, which ran through Calgary. The first of the four final challenges sent one racer from each team gliding across GMC Stadium, home of the Calgary Stampede, then tossing hoops onto a barrel from a considerable height. Tina took that one on and the misses piled up. "Every hoop that I missed, we just were farther and farther behind, and by the end of it, I truly thought that I had lost us the race," she said.

A drumline turned it around. After delivering cowboy hats across town and firing a T-shirt cannon, the sisters drew a showband routine as the last road block of the race, and Liz finished it first. "We love dancing, kind of memorization challenges," she said. "This was that type of challenge, so we knew it was a moment to catch up and get ourselves into first place." One last scavenge through Heritage Park for items from every city they had raced through put them on the final mat at Spruce Meadows ahead of the other two teams.

The prize is $250,000 plus Expedia travel credits to travel the world, and the year ahead should be a calmer one: both sisters were married this summer. They credit their parents for the rest. "They have a beautiful immigrant story," Tina said. "They left everything in China, their whole family support system, to give us an amazing life in Canada." Congrats Tina and Liz!