18-year-old Jeopardy! champion Delaney O’Dea has spoken out after her two games and one win. The champion took home a total of $21,600 between her two games.
O’Dea was one of the youngest contestants to ever compete on the game show during her October 15 episode. During that episode, she won $18,600. Then, when she finished in second place on October 16, she ended with $1,600. Second place goes home with $3,000 and that’s what she took home during her exit from the show.
O’Dea spoke to her college, Brown University, paper, The Brown Daily Herald, about her time on Jeopardy! and what she plans to do with her winnings.
“It was surreal,” she told the outlet. “When I look back at it now and watch the episode, I’m like, ‘Did that ever really happen?’”
O’Dea said that she will use her winnings for “boring” things like taxes and investments, but with the rest, she has been “kicking around and buying stuff I don’t need.”
She chalked up her win on the first episode to the categories. With Broadway and Latin being two of her specialties, O’Dea was able to correctly answer a Daily Double and nail the “Broadway” category.
The Daily Double had to do with the region of Transylvania, which O’Dea solved because she studies Latin in school. “I figured that out from Latin,” she told the Brown Daily Herald. The clue referred to the “region beyond the forest.” This echoes the Latin roots “trans” and “silva,” which indicate “across” and “forest.”
O’Dea was also the only contestant to answer the final question right during her first game. The category was “Public Figures,” and the clue was “Foreshadowing his 1978 death, he said, ‘If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door.’” She was the only one who knew Harvey Milk.
Her former English professor, Mariah Min, told the outlet, “As soon as I saw the question, I was PUMPING MY FIST like a maniac because I KNEW Del knew the answer! I’m so proud of her, as is everyone in her life.”
O’Dea shared that she grew up in California and was raised by her mom and her gay friends. Since Milk was a San Francisco native, O’Dea shared, “I was like, ‘If I don’t get this, I’m gonna be disowned.’”
With the studio being in California, she was only 10 minutes away from her house, where she grew up. “It was nice to go home, and I got to have a bunch of friends and family in the audience,” O’Dea said.
The contestant shared that she went into her second game more relaxed and was just there to have fun.
Jeopardy!, weekdays, check local listings, stream next day on Hulu and Peacock