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Iris Mittenaere Photos: See Pictures And Video Of Miss Universe 2017 Winner, A 24-Year-Old From France Who Became First European Winner In 27 Years

By Nathan Francis
Published on: 13:58 PST, Jan 29, 2017

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5a1i4u

Iris Mittenaere has been named the Miss Universe 2017 winner, and pictures and video of the pageant winner are now going viral as people take to the internet to learn about the beauty from France.

Mittenaere won the crown in Sunday’s competition, beating out runner-up Raquel Pélissier from Haiti.

As her official biography noted, Iris Mittenaere is pursuing a degree in dental surgery when she’s not competing in pageants.

“Iris Mittenaere was born North of France in a town called Lille. Mittenaere has kept herself busy the last 5 years by pursuing her degree in Dental Surgery. Besides dental school, Mittenaere has always been fond of extreme sports, travelling the world and cooking new French dishes.”

Mittenaere represented Nord-Pas-de-Calais at the Miss France 2016 competition before representing her country at Monday’s Miss Universe competition. And Mittenaere’s win was a historic one, as she became the first European winner since 1990, when Norway’s Mona Grud took home the crown. It was also the first Miss Universe winner from France since 1953, breaking a 63-year drought.

Photos of Mittenaere went viral immediately after host Steve Harvey announced her as the Miss Universe 2017 winner, with her name becoming a trending topic on Twitter almost instantly.

Even before the 2017 Miss Universe winner could be crowned, there were some surprises about the group of finalists. This year’s competition had 13 finalists instead of the normal 12, but even in the expanded number, there was no room for Miss Venezuela Mariam Habach.

Venezuela is known as one of the powerhouse nations to compete in the Miss Universe, and contestants from the Latin American nation often reach the very end of the pageant. Contestants from Sierra Leone and Curacao were also missing from the final group despite a lot of audience support, GMA noted.

And the report noted that one of the favorites going into the Miss Universe pageant needed a bit of help to reach the final.

“But another surprise is another pre-pageant favorite, Miss Thailand Chalita Suansane, making it into the top 13 as the online choice rather than a judges’ choice—though her popularity is very understandable, and her status as fan favorite is warranted. According to Steve Harvey, they received 100 million votes in total from fans from all over the world.”

The competition also had a few moments in the spotlight for one of the most famous Miss Universe winners who had one of the show’s most infamous moments. Reigning champion Pia Wurtzbach from the Philippines wasn’t the final name called last year, but that was because host Steve Harvey read the wrong name.

Harvey ended up having to halt the show, calling back Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutiérrez, and taking her crown away.

Pia’s moments were more graceful on Sunday night.

“Hello, Manila!” she called out to the hometown crowd, adding a joke, “I know what you’re thinking…”

And Steve Harvey had some big praise for Pia Wurtzbach.

“Pia embodies everything that the crown stands for,” he said (via GMA). “It has been quite a run,” he later said as Pia took her final walk across the stage, with fans in the audience chanting her name.

Pia got in one final joke, bringing Steve Harvey an oversized pair of glasses to read the winner.

But Sunday’s competition was all about Iris Mittenaere, with photos of the new Miss Universe 2017 spreading across the internet and congratulations rolling in.

More photos and video of Miss Universe 2017 winner Iris Mittenaere can be seen on her Miss Universe page.

[Featured Image by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images]

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