The girls competing in Miss USA 2016 are phenomenal, diverse and can relate to average girls. Miss Vermont is an endurance athlete, Miss Pennsylvania has a hearing impairment, Miss Michigan is a nurse for spinal surgery and Miss District of Columbia is in the Army.
The 65th Miss USA pageant kicks off in Las Vegas on June 5, Sunday, at 7:00 p.m. EST and soon America will find another beauty to represent the country in the Miss Universe pageant later this year. This year, 52 candidates are vying for the title and will give judges a hard time to choose who among the stunners is the best. Unlike Miss America, there is no talent competition in the pageant and the candidates will be judged on evening gown, swimsuit and interview.
So far, eight Miss USA's have won the Miss Universe title. The last was Olivia Culpo in 2012. The Miss USA pageant, which was owned by Donald Trump for 19 years, has been dominated by women from Texas, California, Georgia and New York while women from Wyoming, Delaware and Montana are the least successful.
The 50 states are represented in the pageant, as well as District of Columbia. This year, an extra contestant was selected from an online competition. Ashley Miller from Oklahoma City will compete as Miss 52 USA at the T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada.
One of the notable contestants in the pageant is endurance athlete Neely Fortune, 24, Miss Vermont USA 2016 who resides in Burlington, Vt. The lady campaigns for the importance of maintaining a life that is socially, intellectually and physically balanced. She hopes to inspire young women to be true to themselves, accept their differences and never be defined by labels, according to Syracuse.com.
Fortune ran in 40 races over the past two years, including the Spartan Race, a gruelling obstacle course. She was among the only 12 people who finished the competition's 48-hour Death Race that had them running marathon distances while carrying 70-pound rocks. The lady who can identify over 130 species of trees and 100 birds by song, wants to become a wildlife biologist and help preserve natural resources.
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania is sending a notable representative to the pageant, Miss Elena LaQuatra, 24, a lady who spent her younger years performing in singing and dancing groups before bacterial meningitis hit her. The disease made her deaf in both ears and affected her organs.
The doctors were unsure if LaQuatra would be able to walk again but LaQuatra's parents opted Cochlear implant technology for her. Fast forward 2016, she is Miss Pennsylvania 2016.
"Based on my personality, my involvement in all these dance and performance groups, my parents knew that I would want to be in a hearing world," Miss Pennsylvania 2016 told USA TODAY. The lady had gone through a lot of physical and speech therapies, but her supportive parents never let her focus on her disability.
She mentioned Heather Whitestone, a deaf Miss America in 1995 as an inspirational figure. She added, "I met her at an event for Cochlear America when I was 10 or 11. She was the driving force that encouraged me to enter pageants."