Here's what Wisconsin viewers need to know ahead of Sunday's Miss America 2024 competition
Wausau native Grace Stanke, who became only the third woman from Wisconsin to earn the Miss America title, will crown her successor at the contest.
Caitlin ShudaIt's been quite a year for Wisconsin and the Miss America Organization.
On Sunday, the organization will crown its new titleholder for 2024 during the Miss America finals. And there are so many reasons for Wisconsinites to tune in.
In December 2022, Wausau native Grace Stanke became only the third woman from Wisconsin to be crowned as Miss America in the organization's more than 100-year history. On Sunday, she will close out her year of service as Miss America 2023 and crown her successor.
Miss Wisconsin 2023 Lila Szyryj will also compete alongside 50 other women on Sunday's stage for the title of Miss America 2024.
Miss Wisconsin's Teen 2023 Trinity Horstman competes Saturday night for the title of Miss America's Teen 2024.
Here's everything Wisconsin viewers should know about Stanke, Szyryj and Horstman as well as the 2024 Miss America competition events and how you can watch them.
How did Grace Stanke spend her year as Miss America 2023?
Stanke spent the last year visiting 23 states and seven countries as Miss America 2023. She focused primarily on promoting nuclear energy through her community service initiative she chose during competition: “Clean Energy, Cleaner Future.”
She also finished her undergraduate degree as a nuclear engineer while advocating for the industry.
Stanke made the usual Miss America appearances at events like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Kentucky Derby, but she also went skydiving with the U.S. Army, toured nuclear facilities in Japan and spoke about nuclear energy to presidents, national leaders and high-ranking officials at a global conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Overall, Stanke said she hopes she made people feel welcomed, feel real and feel seen, both through her physical work across the world and through social media.
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'It's been incredible':Wausau's Grace Stanke is excited to begin her reign as Miss America 2023
Who is Miss Wisconsin 2023 Lila Szyryj?
Szyryj has been serving as Miss Wisconsin since June’s competition in Oshkosh.
As the daughter of a Chinese immigrant, Szyryj developed a passion for news and journalism early in life, leading to her career as a journalist. Throughout her year as Miss Wisconsin, Szyryj is focusing on “Breaking Down Breaking News” as her community service initiative, focusing on sharing how a newsroom works, what journalists do each day, and helping people identify credible and accurate information.
Szyryj said news and journalism have been so important to her because her mother immigrated from Beijing at 30 years old, leaving her life, family and culture behind because she believed so strongly in freedom of press and speech. Szyryj’s mother had grown up in a culture with no public libraries, no Google searches and a lot of censorship before moving to a country where information is so readily available everywhere.
After Szyryj was crowned Miss Wisconsin, she said she was looking forward to competing on the national stage and learning and growing through the experience. Although competing for the role of Miss America can be a lot of pressure, watching Stanke compete last year and earn the title was encouraging, she said.
Who is Miss Wisconsin’s Teen 2023 Trinity Horstman?
Horstman has been serving as Miss Wisconsin’s Teen since the June competition, as well.
Horstman has been supporting the Children’s Miracle Network through her community service initiative, raising more than $20,000 for the organization that benefits children’s hospitals. Within the next five years, Horstman hopes to continue her efforts and raise $75,000.
At the Teen competition in June, Horstman choreographed and danced a tap dance to “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” and she intends to keep performing in the future. When she graduates from Holmen High School, she plans to attend the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and work toward a major in music education with a minor in musical theater.
How do I watch the Miss America events?
The Miss America finals will be held at the Walt Disney Theater at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Orlando, Florida, but you won’t need to travel to Florida to see the crowning moments.
Viewers will be able to watch the Miss America competition for free for the first time since 2019. The competition will be streamed on watchmissamerica.com at 6 p.m. Jan. 14.
For those who don’t want to miss any of the action, the entire week’s events and competitions leading up to the final event will also be streamed on watchmissamerica.com, but those portions of the competition will be available as a streaming bundle for $99. That bundle will include all preliminary competitions, Miss America’s Teen finals at 6 p.m. Saturday and bonus coverage of the week’s events like the Red Gala Fashion Show.
The @MissAmericaOfficial YouTube channel will also provide notifications to subscribers, and the show will be uploaded Monday on YouTube.
Contact Caitlin at cshuda@gannett.com or follow her on Twitter @CaitlinShuda.