26-year-old Denise Garrido suddenly realized her childhood dream was coming true as she was crowned Miss Universe Canada. She told The Star newspaper that it had been "the ultimate dream of mine." All of her other pageant winnings, she said, was building up to her winning the Miss Universe Canada title.
However less than 24-hours later, still on a high from her crowning, Garrido's sash, crown and trophy was stripped from her. She also lost the chance to represent Canada at the Miss Universe pageant in the United States this December.
"My heart sank," Garrido told newspaper. "I was so sad."
The day after the crowning Garrido said she was approached by Denis Davila, national director of Miss Universe Canada, who informed her that there was typo when transferring the judges' scores into a computer and she was not the actual winner of the competition. Garrido actually finished in fourth place, the actual winner was Riza Santos.
According to The Star, after the judges' score the contestants someone inputs the scores into a computer. For ten years, lawyer Nick Macos inputs the scores but he was not available for this year's pageant. Instead, an inexperienced pageant employee was given the job. During an audit, the mistake was discovered.
Garrido, who won the 2008 Miss Earth Canada and 2010 Miss World Canada pageants, told the paper she has no hard feelings toward Davila or the organization but the mishap has left other competitors feeling a bit uneasy.
Marwa Ishow, a contestant in the pageant, said because of the mistake contestants were wondering if other mistakes could have been made.
"How do we know that everything else wasn't wrong" she told the paper. "The whole pageant seems like it was staged."
To make it up to Garrido, the organization will let her join Riza Santos, the actual winner, on some of her titleholder duties. They have also asked her to be a judge for the 2014 competition.
Garrido told People magazine "It's definitely a blessing in disguise. I had this dream since I was a kid. I had that moment to be Miss Universe Canada."
