Recovery took months, says Sara Sieppi, who walked on hot coals in the Amazing Race

The soles of his feet badly Nelonen Amazing Race Suomi – smoked in the competition program Sara Sieppi tells HS that his recovery took many months. According to Siepi, the legs have not fully recovered.

“Permanent damage remained. However, that was how bad the incident was,” says Sieppi.

Sara Sieppi and her brother Artturi Sieppi suffered burns after walking on hot coals in the show’s seventh episode. Walking on coals was one of the many tasks that all the participants in the competition had to perform.

The program was filmed in the spring of 2025.

“When summer started, you couldn’t even think about wearing high heels for a long time.”

Sieppi says that the treatment of the burns did not require surgical operations, but the soles of his feet remind him of what happened every day.

“The feet are still dry. For example, in the summer you have to be careful. You can’t walk on hot sand the same way as before,” says Sieppi.

“The skin on the soles of the feet is much thinner than before. They need to be greased a lot more and, especially in winter, they dry out quickly.”

From somewhere for the reason that the coals glowed too hot during the task at the point when the first contestants came to perform it.

“Yes, I wondered about that when I saw those coals. I saw that they were completely orange. But I trusted that the production had gone through the tasks, they had been tested many times and nothing would happen to us,” says Sieppi.

He says what happened scared him.

“After that, I thought that if the race is continued, what kind of tasks will there be in the future and whether we have to think about safety in them.”

No one is forced to do tasks in the program. They can also be refused, but then the competing pairs have to suffer a time penalty and take the risk of being last and eliminated from the competition.

Catcher remembers that three couples arrived at the task site at the same time. There was “commotion and chaos over who would go first” to complete the task.

“There was so much going on there, there was music, dancing and everything. Maybe there wasn’t a lot of instructions. We were only instructed to start from there, to walk from there and there is an ice jumping point.”

According to Siepi, there is so much adrenaline in the race that you move forward with its power.

“At the end of the episode, I was on an adrenaline rush. I was crying because of the pain, but I just said that this was such a great experience. It was great, but really painful.”

Sieppi says the production took care of the treatment during the filming trip.

“After the competition, we went to the hospital the same night, where we got help. During filming, we competitors had a paramedic who went through the health situation with us before the day of the competition. In this case, he checked our feet, took care of the blisters and packed our feet before we put the sneakers back on. In addition, my partner Artturi works in the ambulance himself, so he was a great help in the situation,” says Sieppi.

“However, after filming, no one asked how our legs were.”

Sieppi says he is not going to seek compensation from the production company for what happened.

“I understand that this is a format where things can happen and happen. However, the production apologized and said that it was their fault, and we went through it in a big way.”

Second rival Karoliina Tuominen in turn told On the Amazing podcast that he had “lost his potty toe” and that in the end there was only a “big charred hole”. However, there were no permanent damages from the mission, Tuominen now tells HS in a phone interview.

“It’s not completely gone, but it’s still attached to the body and works well. The toes were really rough-looking. The other big toe had a third-degree burn, so it didn’t look like a toe at all,” says Tuominen.

“They still aren’t the most beautiful flowers in the field. They will remain [haittoja]but I would say more aesthetic disadvantages [kuin toiminnallisia].”

Bridge at the moment, the case no longer affects Tuominen’s daily life, if the need for skin oiling is not counted. Also, immediately after the charcoal task, the legs did not require, for example, surgical treatment.

“But of course, from the moment of the incident onwards, there were quite intensive treatments for both legs for maybe two to three weeks.”

Happened Tuominen and his pair of competitors also had an effect Mia Haatajan for the continuation of the competition.

“It was 30-40 degrees, and both feet were completely greased and packed. And when the feet rotted and were in shoes all day, I don’t know if that’s according to any health recommendations. The hospital said that for the next two weeks you shouldn’t do practically anything on your feet. But of course I did.”

In addition, the continuation of the competition was affected by a strong course of antibiotics and painkillers, Tuominen says.

“After all, it was very painful to walk on my feet. They say that it will affect the future episodes – I’m not saying that it will affect the success, but what kind of decisions have to be made.”

The episode can be watched on the Ruutu+ service and it will be shown on Nelose on Saturday, January 10.

The television channel Nelonen, which presents the Amazing Race, Supla, which publishes the Amazing podcast, and Helsingin Sanomat belong to the Sanoma Group.