Miss Teen USA 2023 UmaSofia Srivastava Steps Down Days After Miss USA Relinquishes Title
Alma Cooper is moving on.
The Miss USA 2024 winner revealed she won’t be attending the 2025 competition’s final round or crowning ceremony just hours before the beauty pageant event’s kickoff Oct. 24.
“After much consideration, I’ve made the extremely difficult decision not to attend this year’s Miss USA pageant and crowning ceremony,” Cooper wrote on Instagram, sharing several photos of her wearing her winner’s sash. “As I close this chapter, I do so with the knowledge that I finished what I started with integrity and my self-worth held high, just like the crown I was honored to wear.”
The 23-year-old explained she put a lot of thought into her decision to skip the finals, where the previous year’s winner typically passes on their crown to the new pageant queen.
“In every aspect of my life, I am always in pursuit of excellence,” she said in her post. “That relentless pursuit fueled me to graduate from West Point top 50 in my class, run three marathons in 10 months and become a Knight Hennessy Fellow at Stanford University.”
And the former Miss Michigan—who won Miss USA months after the previous winner Noelia Voigt became the first queen in the pageant’s 73-year history to give up her crown—said that her work ethic is how she came out victorious during the beauty contest.
