Miss Universe 2003

Miss Universe 2003
Date	June 3, 2003
Presenters	Billy Bush and Daisy Fuentes
Entertainment	Bond and Chayanne
Venue	Figali Convention Center, Panama City, Panama
Broadcaster	NBC, TVN
Entrants	71
Placements	15
Debuts	None (Yugoslavia changed its name to Serbia & Montenegro)
Withdraws	British Virgin Islands, Chile, Ghana, Honduras, Iceland, Kenya, Northern Marianas, Portugal, Uruguay, U.S. Virgin Islands
Returns	Argentina, Barbados, Belize, New Zealand, Chinese Taipei
Winner	Amelia Vega
Represented	Dominican Republic

Miss Universe 2003, the 52nd Miss Universe pageant was held at Figali Convention Center, Panama City, Panama on June 3, 2003. 71 delegates from around the universe competed for the crown. At the conclusion of the final night Amelia Vega of the Dominican Republic was crowned as the new Miss Universe 2003 by Miss Universe 2002, Justine Pasek of Panama.

Panama hosted the pageant for the second time. In 1986, Panama hosted the Miss Universe Pageant for the first time, the pageant final was held at ATLAPA Convention Center, in Panama City.

Results

Countries and territories which sent delegates and results.

Placements

Special awards

Order of announcements

Top 15

Top 10

Top 5

• 1. Venezuela
• 2. Japan
• 3. South Africa
• 4. Dominican Republic
• 5. Serbia & Montenegro

Judges

The following celebrities judged the final competition.

• Roberto Cavalli
• María Celeste Arrarás
• Peter Reckell
• Deborah Carthy-Deu
• Audrey Quock
• Richard Johnson
• Amelia Marshall
• Fernanda Tavares
• Matthew St. Patrick

Contestants

National competitions

Debut

•  Serbia & Montenegro

Withdraws

•  British Virgin Islands - Bethsaida Smith did not compete at Miss Universe 2003.
•  Chile
•  Ghana
•  Honduras
•  Iceland - Manuela Ósk Hardardóttir withdrew due to illness.
•  Kenya
•  Northern Marianas - Kimberly Castro did not compete at Miss Universe 2003.
•  Portugal
•  Uruguay
•  U.S. Virgin Islands

Returns

• Barbados which last competed in 1999.
• Belize which last competed in 2000.
• Argentina, Chinese Taipei and New Zealand which last competed in 2001.

Contestant notes

• Manuela Osk Hardarsdottir of Iceland withdrew from the pageant, when a dehydration caused by the weather prevented her from competing in the Preliminaries. However, she stayed in Panama until the pageant was over, joined by her boyfriend.
• In terms of regional representation, this was one of the most balanced top fives in recent years, with delegates from Africa (South Africa), the Asia-Pacific Region (Japan), Europe (Serbia & Montenegro), South America (Venezuela), and the Caribbean (Dominican Republic) all making the top five.
• India's Nikita Anand failed to place, breaking the 11 year Indian streak of placing in the Top 10 from 1992 to 2002 which produced 2 winners (1994-Sushmita Sen,2000-Lara Dutta), a 1st runner up (1995-Manpreet Brar), a 2nd runner up (1992-Madhu Sapre) and a 4th runner up (2001-Celina Jaitley).
• Angola and Serbia & Montenegro were called out to the semi-finals for the first time.
• Venezuela, South Africa, Canada, and Panama were the only countries in this edition's semi-finals who were also called out in last year's semi-finals.
• As for the other semi-finalists, Japan last placed in 1988, Namibia in 1992, Czech Republic in 1993, the Dominican Republic in 1995, Peru in 1996, both Brazil and Trinidad & Tobago in 1998, and both the USA and Greece in 2001.
• Alexsandra Vodjanikova of Germany went on to win Top Model of the World 2007 in Egypt. She changed her last name and she won with the name of Alessandra Alores.
• Due to China's obstruction to the Miss Universe pageant in 2003, Taiwan was forced to changed her sash label to Chinese Taipei. However, the organizer allowed Szu-Yu Chen to use Taiwan sash out of stage, but Chinese Taipei sash on stage.^[1][2][3]

References

External links

• Miss Universe official website