Meet the 80-year-old Miss Universe Korea contestant

Born almost a decade before the first Miss Universe contest was held in 1952, 80-year-old Choi Soon-hwa could now make history as the pageant’s oldest ever participant

Meet the 80-year-old Miss Universe Korea contestant

Earlier this month, she was unveiled as a finalist in the annual Miss Universe Korea competition. On Monday, Choi will go head-to-head with 31 other contestants for the tiara — and a chance to represent South Korea at the Miss Universe final in Mexico this November.

“I want to stun the world, like, ‘How is an 80-year-old lady so healthy? How did she maintain that body? What’s your diet?’” she told CNN on the phone ahead of the pageant. “When you get old, you gain weight… So, I want to show that we can live healthily even when we get old.”

For decades, the Miss Universe Organization enforced strict age restrictions limiting participation to women aged 18 to 28. But from 2024, amid growing calls to modernize, the upper age limit has been lifted. Last year, the organization also updated eligibility criteria to remove a longstanding ban on pregnant women or mothers, and women who were — or ever had been — married.

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