Miss Colombia Catalina Robayo said Thursday she is confident she will win the Miss Universe beauty pageant, despite the world-wide controversy she caused by not wearing panties.
“Everybody has the right to think and compete the way they want, but in my life the phrase ‘I am going to compete for the experience’ does not exist. For the experience I stay home and watch the contest on TV. I am going to compete and I am going to win. If not, I do not compete,” Robayo told Colombian weekly Elenco.
Miss Colombia, who according to Colombian media stands out because of her charisma and intellect, told the weekly “I am convinced that in a contest like Miss Universe, beauty and intelligence are an explosive combination.”
Nevertheless, Robayo did train hard over the past three months to make sure her body is in perfect shape in case her intellect falls short.
“I trained very hard for three months before coming to Brazil and I came to love it,” she told daily El Colombiano.
Miss Colombia has publicly denied going commando after Fox News reported that published photos of her visible private parts caused Robayo to be reprimanded by the organization.
According to Robayo, “it is a big lie” that she attended official ceremonies wearing nothing underneath her skirts. She told W Radio she does not understand why a week and a half after the photograph was taken it is still causing controversy.
“We all make mistakes. This has helped me incredibly to be a lot more careful and to know that there people are malicious, that when one gives the opportunity that things like this happen, they will use it,” Colombia’s representative said.
Despite the controversy and her own confidence, Robayo is not considered a favorite by bookmakers. International gambling websites place Miss Colombia’s odds at 66 to 1, putting her in the bottom half of the list of 89 beauties competing for this year’s Miss Universe.