Jeopardy! champion Amy Schneider is adding to her list of bragging rights and admirers. Already the highest-earning female contestant in the quiz show's history and the woman with the longest winning streak, on Friday she became one of only four Jeopardy! players to reach seven figures in regular-season winnings. She's collected $1.02 million in 28 victories, solidifying her 4th-place position on the list that includes Ken Jennings with $2.5 million; James Holzhauer, $2.46 million; and Matt Amodio, $1.52 million. Schneider, who's also fourth in consecutive wins, will compete again Monday.
In an interview with the AP, Schneider says she's tickled by the fact that she's fulfilled a prediction made by her 8th-grade classmates in Dayton, Ohio: She was voted most likely to be a Jeopardy! contestant, based on her geography and spelling bee prowess. More significantly, she's the first transgender person to qualify for the show's tournament of champions. Schneider's achievements have made her both an inspiration and a target for transphobic insults online—which she batted away with the same aplomb she displays on TV. Two quotes on the subject:
- "I don't want my social media to be a place where people are arguing about politics all the time," she says. "But at the same time, I can’t ignore the fact that there’s people out there threatening my brothers and sisters in the trans community."
- "One of the things that I’ve enjoyed the most is hearing from parents, and sometimes grandparents, of trans people, an older generation," she says. "There's a lot of fear for their loved ones who are trans, and worry that they might be limited in life. To be able to go out there and show that I can be successful in a very mainstream type of way has, I think, made a lot of them feel better about the people in their lives."
Read the
full interview. (Schneider
recently was the victim of an armed robbery.)
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