Miss Universe 2016 Iris Mittenaere waves during a press conference right after her coronation on Monday. (Photo by Bernard Testa/InterAksyon)
No one was more surprised at winning the Miss Universe crown than Iris Mittenaere of France herself.
“I don’t believe it. It was a big surprise. Every step was a surprise. I wanted to cry at every step,” she told InterAksyon and other media during the press conference that followed shortly after her coronation Monday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Most pageant fans who woke up early in the morning and filled up the posh arena were also surprised to see the otherwise unheralded Dental Surgery student from Paris buck the odds and win the most prestigious beauty pageant in the world.
Mittenaere bested 85 other hopefuls, including equally unheralded Racquel Pelissier of Haiti and crowd favorite Andrea Tovar of Colombia. Mittenaere was not in the radar of most experts in early pageant predictions although she initially landed in the Top 9 in the Pre-Arrival Hot Picks of pageant analysis site, Missosology.org.
She was ranked No. 21 in the site’s Hot Picks that followed, then move up to No. 17 before totally disappearing by the time the list was updated last January 20.
That changed dramatically after the Miss Universe Preliminary Show that included the swimsuit, long gown and national costume competitions last January 26. In justifying its No. 7 rank for its Final Hot Picks, Missosology noted that Mittenaere “was a revelation during the preliminary competition.”
“If there was a ‘sexiest woman alive’ special award that night, she would have gotten it hands down! And for that, she zoomed up into the seventh spot! She certainly knows how to entertain the viewers, and we appreciate the way she played with the audience, especially during the national costume presentation,” the site added.
With momentum on her side, Miss France was a picture of beauty, grace, confidence and intelligence during pageant night.
source: msn
