Amy Schneiderman: First Women to Win $1 Million on Jeopardy!

After Amy’s 28th victory in a row with a $42,200 win capped by a Final Jeopardy question about a 1948 expedition account, Amy Schneiderman became the first woman ever in Jeopardy! history to win more than $1 million on the regular game show and the fourth ever contestant to do this. Schneiderman’s run began Nov. 17, when she claimed a last-minute victory by being the only contestant to correctly answer the Final Jeopardy clue. Later that week, she also acknowledged her identity as a transgender woman by wearing a trans pride flag pin.

Amy commented on her achievements, as well as her identity, stating: “It feels amazing, it feels strange. It’s not a sum of money I ever anticipated would be associated with my name… I didn’t want to make too much about being trans, at least in the context of the show. I am a trans woman, and I’m proud of that fact, but I’m a lot of other things, too!… the fact is, I don’t actually think about being trans all that often, and so when appearing on national television, I wanted to represent that part of my identity accurately: as important, but also relatively minor. But I also didn’t want it to seem as if it was some kind of shameful secret.”

Source: NPR