It seemed impossible to stop her, but she did it on Wednesday. After 40 wins, Amy Schneider, the “Jeopardy!” champion whose information recall often seemed faster than a search engine, was defeated.
Schneider ended the game with the second longest winning streak in the game’s history and $1.4million in total winnings. Rhone Talsma from Chicago, a 29 year-old librarian, beat Schneider. She correctly answered the Final Jeopardy question when Schneider did not. His smile after his win was one that you will never forget. absolute shock. (He said in an interview Wednesday that he had thought defeat was inevitable because of Schneider’s record.)
Schneider, 42-year-old engineering manager from Oakland, Calif., has experienced a turbulent few months. She fulfilled a longtime dream to appear on the show, and had to contend with being a public figure in her meteoric rise to game-show stardom. She dealt with online bigotry as a transgender woman. respondingShe did so graciously via social media and received a stream positive feedback from people who were happy to see a transgender individual succeed on television.
In an interview on Wednesday, she spokeabout her final game and what her run on “Jeopardy!” has meant to her. These are edited excerpts of the conversation.
Is there one overwhelming emotion or a combination of them?
It’s definitely a mix. A lot of it is emotions that I had at the time, but the one that’s really different is that my fans on Twitter and everything are going to be sad. It really bums my heart.
Bring me back to where I was at the beginning of this game. Do you recall how you felt at the beginning of this game?
You know what? I felt something about that day. You wouldn’t really think so from looking at the scores of the last week, but once I passed Matt Amodio, there was this like motivation — I could feel it slip. You know, Ken’s record still seems so far away. The fatigue from this taping was really starting add up. I couldn’t explain it even to myself, but I just could feel that something was slipping a little bit, however much I tried to fight it.
How many games did you play that day?
This was the third. It happened right after lunch. Rhone was another thing I had a feeling about. Ken would often say how, when he was eventually defeated, it was the person who was just friendly and wanted to hang out, wasn’t intimidated by him. Rhone proved that to be true. He was also a great guy to have a good time with. And I was like, well, if it had to be someone, I’m glad it was him.
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What was the turning point in that game?
There was one clue we both knew the answer too, and he beat my buzzer to win the Daily Double. And he — I think quite correctly — made the bold move and bet everything to really go for the win and it paid off for him. Once he had won the Daily Double, I knew it was going down to Final Jeopardy.
Please walk me through that Final Jeopardy. What do you think about the category (Countries of the World).
It was a great category. Geography has always been a strong area of my interest. And then the clue came up, and it just wasn’t coming to me. It was frustrating.
[The clue: The only nation in the world whose name in English ends in an “H,” it’s also one of the 10 most populous.]
I remember my mind as it was moving through the world. I was like, “India; no. Pakistan; no. Nepal; no.” And then it just moved on and I was right there by Bangladesh and I didn’t get it.
A lot of times during this run you’ve been totally secure going into Final Jeopardy. This is kind of unusual, right?!
Yes, it had happened before, but not recently. And so I’d sort of forgotten what that fear was like and that kind of pressure.
It felt like you were sinking in the knowledge that it was over.
It was difficult. Playing “Jeopardy!” has been the most fun I’ve ever had and I didn’t want it to end. It was obvious that it would happen, but it was hard to see the moment. There was also some relief. One of the first thoughts I had was, well, I don’t have to come up with any more anecdotes. It had been a lot going out of town every single week. It was just nice to feel like, OK, I can just go back to my normal life and Genevieve. [Schneider’s girlfriend].
I can only imagine how emotionally and mentally draining it was. Describe how you felt after five hours of taping.
Just Do it. I would call Genevieve, let her know, and then go back to the hotel room, or the airport depending on what day it was. I don’t think, I don’t read on my phone, just like nothing every hour.
What did you learn about yourself from this experience?
Yes, Bangladesh. That is what I can assure you. It’s mainly around some of the stuff I missed. Like the Field Museum yesterday [the correct response to Final Jeopardy] — that was frustrating.
And what about your life?
The main thing I took away from this was my ability to be OK with myself, how and what I present to the world. I’ve been openly trans for a little under five years now, and there’s still definitely lingering worry and dysphoria and things like that.
Just to get so much positive feedback, so much support and so much acceptance, it enabled me — by the end of it — to look at myself on TV and be like, “Oh, you know, she’s pretty, she’s fun, what a likable person.” And I’ve never been able to see myself that way before.
What kind of feedback have you heard from transgender “Jeopardy!” fans or just transgender people in general who have reached out to you?
It was a great support. That’s been really great and really meaningful. I think that just as great, just as meaningful, has been hearing from parents, grandparents, loved ones of trans people and hearing either that they understand their trans loved ones better, or, a lot of times too, that I’ve eased their fears for their trans loved ones, seeing that trans people can succeed and they’re not going to be as limited as maybe they feared that they would be.
Source: NY Times