Victor Jih and Tammy Jih: The Amazing Race 14

LOS ANGELES, Cali. — Congratulations to Victor and Tammy (Victor’s sister) for being chosen as contestants on The Amazing Race 14! Root for them beginning Sunday, February 15 on ABC. Victor has a Fan Page setup over on Facebook. Make sure you join!

Victor, of course, is the owner and chief executive of Victory Briefs. He was the champion of the 1989 California Invitational (Berkeley), coached the 1994 TOC champion, is the present director of debate at Brentwood School, and serves as chair of the West Los Angeles NFL District. Tammy was the champion of the 1999 Stanford Invitational.

More information follows after the jump.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Most contestants on “The Amazing Race” must tackle language barriers during their trek around the world. As the reality series’ first-ever deaf contestant, Luke Adams had double the trouble. The 22-year-old recent college grad and his mother Margie are among the 11 two-person teams racing for the $1 million prize in the upcoming 14th season.

“I thought it would be easy because my mother and I have always communicated really well,” the longtime “Amazing Race” fan, who doesn’t speak or read lips, said through an interpreter. “In the airports, my mom had to do all of the work because she had to do all of the talking. It was kind of hard for me to depend on her to do all of that.”

“In the beginning, I think Luke didn’t have a whole lot of trust that I was going to communicate all of the information that I was receiving to him properly,” said Margie. “I would ask a question or for directions, and it would take five minutes to get the answer, then I’d give him a 30-second reply. He’d say, ‘No, you didn’t tell me everything.’”

Other teams this season include pairs of stuntmen, Southwest Airlines flight attendants, former National Football League cheerleaders and University of Louisville college athletes. Brother-and-sister team Victor Jih, 35, and Tammy Jih, 26, both graduated from Stanford University and Harvard Law School and now work as corporate litigators in California.

“Having seven years of higher education under our belts, we thought it would give us a big advantage because we’re good at learning,” said Tammy. “We went into this race knowing that everything we would face would be difficult and new and things that we’re not familiar with, but we were really comfortable in the fact that we’re good learners.”

Beginning at the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base near Long Beach, Calif., the Emmy-winning CBS reality competition (premiering Feb. 15 at 8 p.m. EST) will follow the teams for 12 episodes as they travel over 40,000 miles in 22 days to nine countries, including — for the first time — Romania as well as Switzerland, India and Russia.

“We shot in the city of Krasnoyarsk and the city of Novosibirsk,” said “Amazing Race” executive producer Bertram van Munster. “The teams get from one city to another via the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Of course, it started off nice, but we got into this Siberian snowstorm with below-zero temperatures, which we weren’t used to. It was pretty exciting.”

At 68, Mel White is the season’s oldest contestant. The gay-rights activist and former speechwriter for Pat Robertson and Billy Graham is teamed up with his 38-year-old son Mike White, the actor-screenwriter who penned such films as “School of Rock” and “Nacho Libre.” Despite the frantic pace of the race, Mike insists he didn’t bicker much with his dad.

“Compared to some of the other teams, I think we got along like a Hallmark card,” he said.

FROM The Amazing Race Website:
Biography

Tammy Jih (26); Victor Jih (35)
Hometown: San Francisco, Calif./Los Angeles, Calif.
Occupation: Lawyers
Relationship: Siblings/Lawyers

If they can manage to work together, this smart and sassy brother/sister duo – both with Harvard Law degrees – might have just what it takes to outsmart the competition and cross the finish line first.

Tammy is a litigator who believes that her ability to keep a cool head under pressure, especially with little or no sleep, will lead to success on the Race. Her biggest pet peeve with her brother is that he’s a bit of a control freak. This was never more evident than when they recently traveled with friends to China and Victor mapped out the entire trip down to the minute.

Victor is a partner at his law firm and works as a corporate litigator. He is running the Race to see if he and his sister can co-exist in a hyper-competitive situation without driving each other crazy. Victor thinks that his teammate can be immature and selfish and he’s hoping the Race will remedy that.

Victor is confident in his decision making and believes his sister should do what he says as he knows best. Tammy would like to prove to Victor that she’s not a baby anymore and that it’s time he view her as an equal. Victor is modeling his game play after the cut-throat style of Rob and Amber while Tammy prefers Season 12 winners TK and Rachel’s laid back approach.

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