Hamilton Elliott never doubted for a second that he was man enough to enter The Amazing Race Canada.

The 20-year-old, Centreville, N.S., resident and his fiancée, Michaelia Drever, make up the youngest team in the race. They are one of 12 teams competing in the third season of Canada’s most popular homegrown TV series, which returns Wednesday at 9 p.m. on CTV. The others include professional wrestlers, police officers, soldiers, a UFC fighter and a CFL Hall of Famer (Neil Lumsden).

Elliott represents a first for The Amazing Race in the U.S. or Canada: he’s the first transgender participant.

The Amazing Race is a gruelling competition, but Elliott and Drever, who looked even younger than they are when interviewed before the start of the race, seem fully aware they’re in a much bigger marathon.

The two met nearly seven years ago while both were army cadets. With the support of Drever, Elliot approached his family about transforming his gender when he was 15.

“I’ve never really looked like a girl so it wasn’t hard for me,” he says.

Born with the name Hanna, Elliott has identified as a male his whole life. “You look at pictures of me when I was 5; I look like a little boy.”

Both he and Drever say they’ve received tremendous support from friends and family back home.

Elliott’s transition took place between ages 16 and 18. Last summer, the couple backpacked throughout Europe, travelling to 13 countries. Elliot, in fact, proposed to Drever in Paris, under the Eiffel Tower. “I didn’t know when we’d be in Paris again,” he says.

None of the other teams, before and during much of the race, had any idea of Elliott’s gender status, which is how he wanted it.

“He didn’t want people to judge him and assume things,” says Drever. Elliott wanted the players to get to know him first and find out later.

Like all the teams, the couple were cast back in February. Supervising producer and showrunner Mark Lysakowski and others associated with the series met with media counsellors from The 519, a Toronto LGBTQ support organization. “How do I tell this story?” was Lysakowski’s overriding question.

The gender issue comes up in the first episode. “Every team has stories,” says Lysakowski, who didn’t want to sensationalize the couple by springing Elliott’s gender transition in a gimmicky way.

In any event, Elliott and Drever don’t believe gender plays a big part in The Amazing Race. According to both, luck plays a much bigger part.

Where he was challenged was in situations where he became self-conscious about his body. Team members sometimes have to slip in and out of costumes or sports gear. Suddenly, just entering the men’s room with other players becomes a checkpoint challenge for Elliott.

He also had to keep his testosterone medication, administered by needle, with him throughout the race. “We always kept it in the bottom of the knapsack,” says Drever.

This edition of The Amazing Race Canada will see teams race outside our borders, including a visit to India. Elliott travelled with a doctor’s note explaining his need for the medication he carried in case it became an issue.

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In other travels, Elliott has had border agents do double takes at his gender status. “They were like, ‘Oh, this says female, it’s obviously wrong, it should say male,’” says Drever. “They would just overlook it and we didn’t say anything.”

Lysakowski hopes viewers find many reasons to follow Elliott and Drever once The Amazing Race Canada returns. “We’ve never really had a young, in-love couple like these two before now.”

If viewers tune in out of curiosity, the couple hope what they take away will be inspiration.

“The biggest thing we want viewers to know is that no matter what — whether you identify as a male or a female — it doesn’t matter as long as you feel comfortable with who you are,” says Drever.