On January 14, the name of the most beautiful woman in the universe will be known. The gala will take place in Louisiana, New Orleans, United States.
There are 85 applicants competing for the universal crown, which despite the fact that it will take place at the beginning of 2023, the winner will be the sovereign of 2022, since last year, due to the pandemic, there was no competition; This is why the current Miss Universe, Harnaaz Sandhu from India, has worn the crown for 13 months. (Miss Universe 2022: meet the favorite candidates)
Now, the new thing is that the candidates will become 84 since in the midst of the preparations to officially start the final competition, one of them announced her retirement due to health problems.
This is Miss Latvia, Kate Alexeeva, who through a post on Instagram explained that she was infected with COVID-19.
“I am forced to revoke my participation in Miss Universe this year. I still can’t believe I’m saying this. This decision is being made because my health and the health of other contestants and their families is a priority,” she said.
For her part, the national director of Miss Universe Latvia, Inga Raduga, commented: “I know how upset you are, but that’s life. I hope you shine and everyone sees your beauty at Miss Universe 2023.”
Finally, the young woman commented that before the New Year she was diagnosed with the virus and that the consequences of this disease are latent, so she must dedicate herself to taking care of her health and therefore that of the other participants and organizers of said contest.
“Shortly before New Year I was diagnosed with covid. Complications followed. At the moment I continue to recover ”, she pointed out. (Miss Universe continues announcing changes: Steve Harvey is no longer going)
It should be remembered that countries that had been absent in other years returned to this edition. Angola, Belize, Burma, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Saint Lucia, Seychelles, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago and Uruguay, are some of those who said they were present.
On the other hand, for the first time in the contest, there will be a candidate representing Bhutan, a Buddhist country located on the eastern edge of the Himalayas.
In addition, there are countries that decided not to participate in this edition of the contest: Denmark, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Latvia, Morocco, Romania and Sweden.
The representation of Colombia
María Fernanda Aristizábal, will be in charge of leaving the name of the country high and so far she is emerging as one of the favorites to take the universal crown.
María Fernanda’s path to queen began in 2019 when she won the title of Miss Colombia through the National Beauty Contest, in which she represented her department, Quindío, and thus managed to give it its first crown, since never a representative from there he had won the contest.