Osmel Sousa can look at the world’s most beautiful woman and see a flaw in her nose.
With that kind of perfectionism, he has become the mastermind behind six Miss Universe winners — including the last two. His intensive training on how to walk, talk and smile, not to mention his eye for the right nip-tuck, are the keys to his success.
After making his country the first to win two in a row, Sousa is aiming for a Miss Universe three-peat next year with the new Miss Venezuela.
PHOTO: AFP
Miss Venezuela is consistently the country’s most watched television event and as the contestants take the stage, Sousa will be in the background — as he has been since 1981, when he took over as president of the Miss Venezuela Organization.
As Sousa tells it, the rigorous training he demands is what has given Venezuelan beauty queens the edge. During daily sessions lasting 10 hours or more, he and his team of specialists instruct the women on public speaking, posture, makeup and other details.
He runs a tight ship at the Miss Venezuela training school, overseeing catwalk sessions and gym classes where the women lift weights and ride stationary bikes. Contestants are weighed daily and Sousa closely checks to make sure they aren’t exceeding his strict limits.
He was born in Cuba, but his parents sent him at age 13 to live with relatives in Venezuela, which has been his home ever since. He talks little about the circumstances of his departure, but says his parents have been distant since childhood.
One of his first students, Maritza Sayalero, won Miss Universe in 1979. Sousa suggested plastic surgery to correct an “ugly nose.”
Sousa knows a star when he sees one and he believed current Miss Universe Stefania Fernandez had what it took to go all the way, like Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza the year before. Still, he was surprised when Fernandez won Miss Universe in the Bahamas last month because no other country had ever managed to capture the crown two years in a row.
“That girl’s triumph was a dream come true,” Sousa said. “I’ve always wanted to see a Venezuelan turning over the scepter of universal beauty to another Venezuelan.”
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS