The Amazing Race Finale: Let's Hear It for the...Girls!

17th season of Emmy-endorsed reality competition lives up to history-making hype

By Drusilla Moorhouse Dec 13, 2010 4:32 AMTags
THE AMAZING RACE 17, CastJohn P. Filo/CBS

Girl power for the win!

After traveling 32,000 miles across four continents and through 30 cities, the 17th season finale lived up to its history-making hype: For the first time in the game's history, an all-female team took home the million-dollar prize.

So which ladies were the first to greet host Phil Keoghan on the finish mat in Los Angeles?

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Jeffrey R. Staab/CBS

Doctors Nat Strand, 31, and Kat Chang, 35, beat out fellow femmes Brook Roberts and Claire Champlin and dating couple Thomas Wolfard and Jill Haney.  

Nat—who overcame two signifcant obstacles, diabetes and a debilitating fear of heights—was greeted with cheers and applause by all this season's competitors as she and Kat made it to the feel-good finish.

Following shortly on their heels were vivacious Ivanka Trump-lookalike Brook, who kissed, danced and "flaired" her way across the world and into our (and Phil's) hearts. Her slower-moving (to be fair, anyone would seem sedate beside Brook) partner Clair will forever be known as the "watermelon girl" after being smacked in the face by a slingshot-rebounding melon.

Jeffrey R. Staab/CBS

Ivy League-ish grad Thomas and his hairstylist girlfriend Jill, frontrunners for much of the race, suffered one of their only (but most disastrous) setbacks in the hands of another Amazing Race cabbie from hell.

The trio's final challenges in L.A. included bungee-jumping from a crane at the Port of Long Beach, helping to assemble a Rose Parade float and solving a trivia puzzle based on the race's previous legs—introduced by game-shot host Bob Eubanks (to the gleeful squeals of "fellow host" Brook).

In the end, luck belonged to the ladies—both to winners Nat and Kat and runners-up Brook and Claire, who (squee!) Phil announced will be competing in next season's all-star edition of The Amazing Race. Among other non-winning teams from previous seasons, they will be joined by Cowboys Jet and Cord and goth faves Kynt and Vixsin.

MORE: Come back here tomorrow for our interviews with The Amazing Race winners!