And they're off! Two locals on board for seriously competitive season of CBS's 'The Amazing Race'
Maria Sciullo
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
6:15 AM
Dec 29, 2017
Growing up in Apollo, Dessie Mitcheson did a little of everything: gymnastics, track and field, diving, event golf. At Kiski Area High School, she was into the song-and-dance of musicals, too.
After cosmetology school, she got into modeling and competitive swimsuit competitions. Her bio notes she is an Instagram model.
Clearly, Ms. Mitcheson, 27, has energy to spare. As a contestant on CBS’s “The Amazing Race,” it looks as if she’ll need it because the 30th cycle of the Emmy Award-winning reality “race around the world” has brought its most A-personality teams yet.
There are Indy race car drivers, former NBA players, X-Game ski champions (that would be Uniontown native Kristi Leskinen and partner Jen Hudak), even professionals in the world of competitive eating.
The season begins 8 p.m. Wednesday with a leg that begins in New York City’s Washington Square. First stop: Iceland.
“We had no idea [it would be a season of ‘champions’]” said Ms. Mitcheson. “Right before the show started, we were eyeing up all these people. The only thing I knew was, there is normally an older person or two, and Kayla [Fitzgerald] and I noticed there were no older people.”
“This is, without a doubt,” the most competitive cast ever, and these people are used to winning in their chosen fields,” said Phil Keoghan, longtime host.
Ms. Mitcheson said she has watched the show for years. Although
she previously tried out with her father, her brother and a cousin — “I guess no one wanted my family,” she said, laughing — she was finally cast with friend and fellow model Ms. Fitzgerald, who is from Clermont, Fla.
Strictly embargoed from discussing the unaired adventure, Ms. Mitcheson did allow that “that first leg of the Race was definitely more physically and psychologically challenging than I expected.”
Any tips gleaned from watching the show for years went out the window.
“We were doing a lot of planning on that first flight — what to do in the airport, looking up directions, trying to ask people and hoping they’d been to our destination. But as soon as we got there, it didn’t matter,” she said.
http://www.post-gazette.com/ae/tv-radio/2017/12/29/The-Amazing-Race-Pittsburgh-Mitcheson-Leskinen/stories/201712300006