Arna Ýr Jónsdóttir, a 20-year-old former gymnast, represents Iceland at the 2016 Miss Grand International pageant. (Photo : Instagram/arnayr)
Miss Iceland 2015 Arna ýr Jónsdóttir, 20, made a surprising decision to drop out of the Miss Grand International 2016 beauty pageant days before the competition. The model revealed the organizers advised her to lose weight in order to improve her chances of winning.
Jónsdóttir arrived in Las Vegas on Oct. 8 to compete in Miss Grand International, one of the world's leading international beauty pageants. Instead of prepping for the finale, she announced on her Facebook account that she would drop out of the competition after the event organizers told her she looked slimmer and more beautiful in photos than in person.
In particular, Jónsdóttir claimed she was instructed to stop eating breakfast, to just have a salad for lunch and to drink plenty of water each night until the finals. On Oct. 24, Monday, the Icelandic beauty queen took to Instagram to share a handwritten resignation letter, which was addressed to pageant founder and Thai TV presenter Nawat Itsaragrisil.
A photo posted by Arna Ýr Jónsdóttir (@arnayr) on Oct 24, 2016 at 3:42pm PDT
Jónsdóttir, who has been a gymnast since she was 10, said she was determined to stand up for herself and the Icelandic nation. She then hopes the pageant organizers will open their eyes.
"Yes, my shoulders are a bit broader than the other girls' but that is because I was a member of the Icelandic national athletics team and I am proud of that," Jónsdóttir told Icelandic newspaper Iceland Monitor after the experience. "Personally, I think I'm fine as I am."
The pageant founder, on the other hand, has since admitted that the staff advised Miss Iceland to get in shape if she wanted to do well in the contest. Itsaragrisil added he had already spoken with Jónsdóttir along with the company's vice president and cleared up matters, claiming that all appears to be fine.
"This is a normal process for the three weeks during the pageant, everyone should show their improvement," Itsaragrisil said in a statement obtained by CNN. "Similarly the staff gave the same advice for others who asked what should they do to improve in order to win."
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