Connie and Sam are one of four couples who did not return for The Amazing Race after the 19-month COVID-19 suspension, and many fans are curious why the racers who did not return decided to sit the next phase of this unprecedented season on the sidelines. It turns out, Connie and Sam had a very valid reason.

This season of The Amazing Race started out normally, and Connie and Sam, a married couple from North Carolina, were in the middle of the pack for the majority of the race. It looked like if they had continued in the race, they wouldn’t have been eliminated in the next couple legs, but didn’t appear to be frontrunners either. After the second elimination, on February 28, 2020, host Phil Keoghan informed the contestants the race would be suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It turned out to be the right move, as the U.S. would shut down mere weeks later. At first, many thought the pandemic would be over in a matter of months, or at least by 2021. But the delay ended up lasting much longer than most people expected, leading some contestants to start planning the next phase of their lives without the race.

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During the suspension of the race, Connie became pregnant with a son. When the race resumed filming in fall 2021, she was only a few months away from giving birth and therefore could not continue the race when the contestants reconvened in Switzerland. Connie had the child, a son named Elijah, in December.

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A post shared by Connie Greiner (@connielgreiner)

There were three other pairs that did not return to the race, which shows the challenges the show faced in asking the contestants to put their lives on pause in hopes the race would eventually return. Phil teases that two other teams will be joining the five remaining and that they would be familiar faces, leading many to believe the two already eliminated teams will be there to restart the race. Perhaps they will incur some type of penalty if that is the case, to make it fair.

While Connie and Sam would have wanted to finish the race, they have something even greater to cherish now as they’ve grown their family. The contestants said their friendships had grown strong even in that short amount of time, so while they were a part of history in the least fun type of way, at least they have the memories from the few legs they did complete. And they could say they never lost, which is always a plus.

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Justin Fedich
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Justin Fedich is a reality TV editor based in Washington, D.C. He has reported on the need for increased representation in the Survivor franchise and has interviewed stars from Netflix hit shows The Circle, Too Hot To Handle and Love Is Blind.

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