Miss USA, Olivia Culpo (L) is crowned Miss Universe during the
Miss Universe competition, Wednesday
AP
An American university student is the new Miss
Universe, defeating dozens of contestants from six continents to bring the crown
back to the U.S. after a drought of more than a decade.
Twenty-year-old Olivia Culpo won the title
Wednesday night at the Planet Hollywood casino on the Las Vegas Strip, replacing
outgoing champion Leila Lopes of Angola, reports The Associated Press.
The Boston University sophomore's coronation ends
a long losing spell for the U.S. in the competition co-owned by Donald Trump and
NBC. An American had not won the Miss Universe title since Brook Lee won in
1997.
Culpo, who beat out 88 competitors, wore a tight
navy blue mini-dress with a sequined bodice as she walked on stage for the
event's opening number. Later in the night, she strutted in a purple and blue
bikini, and donned a wintery red velvet gown with a plunging neckline.
No one was more surprised than Culpo's family
when told them she was entering the Miss Rhode Island contest last year, her
father Peter recalled.
"We didn't know a thing about pageants," he
said.
She won that contest in a rented $20 dress with a
hole in it and then began working out, dieting, and studying current events on
flashcards to compete for the Miss USA crown.
Culpo was good enough during preliminary Miss
Universe contests to be chosen as one of 16 semifinalists who moved on to
compete in the main show. Her bid lasted through swimsuit, evening wear, and
interview competitions that saw cuts after each round.
She won over the judges even after tripping
slightly during the evening gown competition. Telecasters pointed it out but
also noted her poised recovery.
Moments before she won, Culpo was asked whether
she had she had ever done something she regretted.
"I'd like to start off by saying that every
experience no matter what it is, good or bad, you'll learn from it. That's just
life," she said. "But something I've done I've regretted is probably picking on
my siblings growing up, because you appreciate them so much more as you grow
older."
One of those siblings, 17-year-old Gus, was
cheering from the front row with his sister's glittering Miss Rhode Island sash
wrapped around his shoulders
Miss Philippines, Janine Tugonon, came in second,
while Miss Venezuela, Irene Sofia Esser Quintero, placed third. All the
contestants spent the past two weeks in Sin City, where they posed in hardhats
at a hotel groundbreaking, took a painting lesson, and pranked hotel guests by
hiding in their rooms.
After the show, Culpo appeared wearing a white
gold crown atop her long brown hair and told a group of reporters she hoped to
bring the country some good news in the wake of the deadly school shooting in
Connecticut.
"It's such an honor to be representing the USA in
an international beauty contest in spite of all the tragedy that's happened in
this country lately," she said. "I really hope that this will raise everybody's
spirits a little."
The daughter of two professional musicians, Culpo
grew up in Cranston and spent her summers at band camp. She has played the cello
alongside world-renowned classical musician Yo-Yo Ma, and followed in her
parents' footsteps with performances at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Her father called her the "nerdiest" of her
siblings, and her brother recalled that she was "really chubby and sort of weird
when she was younger."
They speculated that the same single-mindedness
that helped her master the cello in second grade propelled her rapid rise
through the beauty pageant ranks.
With her promotion, Miss Maryland Nana Meriwether
becomes the new Miss USA
Culled from : Thisday
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