Miss USA 2024 Alma Cooper Makes Rare Reference to Her Win, Months After Skipping Pageant to Crown Successor
Miss USA 2024 Alma Cooper Makes Rare Reference to Her Win, Months After Skipping Pageant to Crown Successor
Zoey LyttleWed, February 18, 2026 at 4:42 PM UTC
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Alma Cooper after winning Miss USA on Aug. 4, 2024.
Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty
On Feb. 17, former Miss USA Alma Cooper posted a video of her crowning ceremony, marking one of the few times she's referenced her 2024 win
In the caption of her post, the Stanford University graduate student announced that she had submitted a draft of her upcoming TedX talk
Cooper's post comes months after she bucked tradition and declined to attend last year's Miss USA pageant to crown her successor
Former Miss USA Alma Cooper made a rare reference to her 2024 win nearly four months after her noteworthy absence from last year's pageant.
On Tuesday, Feb. 17, the West Point Military Academy alum posted footage from her crowning ceremony in August 2024. In text that overlayed her recording of a YouTube video, Cooper briefly reflected on the reality of her achievement.
"Hey so sometimes I forget this actually happened to me," the 23-year-old captioned her Instagram Reel, punctuating the statement with several emojis.
Alma Cooper at Stanford University.
Philippe Roberge
Despite her video's focus on the pageant, Cooper made no mention of Miss USA in her caption. Instead, the Stanford University graduate student took the opportunity to share that she submitted a draft of her TedX Stanford talk.
"Thinking about how much my life has changed over the past year is crazy," she wrote. "I’m so grateful for the people who have believed in me and my crazy dreams and i can’t believe i get to talk about my crazy beautiful life as a woman in stem in April."
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Cooper was named the winner of the national pageant during a somewhat tenuous time in Miss USA's 74-year history. She was crowned just months after the previous titleholder, Noelia Voigt, shocked the world by relinquishing her crown, a bombshell action that was also taken by her younger counterpart, Miss Teen USA 2023.
The organization also underwent shakeups in leadership shortly before last year's competition, with pageantry veteran Thom Brodeur replacing former CEO Laylah Rose just weeks before the pageant. However, despite what many viewed as a promising change, Cooper did not attend Miss USA in October 2025 to crown her successor, per long-held tradition.
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The glittering victory piece was instead bestowed upon current titleholder Audrey Eckert by Miss Universe 2024 Victoria Kjær Theilvig. Cooper issued a statement to confirm her absence just hours before Miss USA's final round.
"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. "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."
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
