Madison Marsh, a 22-year-old second lieutenant in the US Air Force and master’s student at the Harvard Kennedy School’s public policy program, clinched the 2024 Miss America title in Orlando, Florida on Sunday night.
Marsh is the first active-duty Air Force officer ever to bag the national title.
represented the state of Colorado in the event where fifty-one contestants participated, representing all 50 American states as well as the District of Columbia.
Marsh succeeds the 2023 Miss America, Grace Stanke of Wisconsin. Ellie Breaux of Texas placed as first-runner-up.
The pageant followed three nights of preliminary competitions.
For the discussion round which included topics of terrorism, technology, nutrition and climate change, Marsh highlighted “drugs in America” and recounted her late mother’s battle with pancreatic cancer. In the talent round, Marsh presented a spoken-word piece centered on receiving a pilot’s license at 16.
“You can achieve anything. The sky is not the limit and the only person that’s stopping you is you,” Marsh said in an interview shared via Miss America’s Instagram story, reported media outlets.
Giving hope to aspiring pageant participants, Marsh said, “If I can come from a small town, and not be a part of the pageant, yet step into the pageant world, then so can anybody else.”
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