Julia Collins of Chicago has faced an end to her winning streak as the winningest woman on Jeopardy Monday after winning 20 games in a row. Collins, age 31, has long predicted her victory on Jeopardy since she was in the 8th grade. She credits her degree in engineering from MIT and an art history degree to her success.
Collins won her 20th game Friday, making her total winnings a little over $428,000. She is the top female player in all of the 50 years that the game show has been around and the second best player in the game show’s history. The only player who has a longer winning streak is Ken Jennings who won 74 games and won $2.5 million in 2004, according to The Washington Post.
Collins was prepared to win once more on Monday, but couldn’t seem to figure out the answer to the final question on the New England Writer in 1999 who won an Oscar. She lost to Brian Loughnane from Massachusetts. Loughnane won a total of $22,600.
Julia Collins hopes that her success will inspire other women to become high achievers. Her winnings, along with the victories of a few other women, show an upward trend in women winners on the show. This year’s match numbers show females outnumbered males 78 to 64. The top female player prior to Collins was Stephanie Jass, who won seven games in season 29 and the female player with the higest winnings was Larissa Kelly, having won $222,597. Collins took the no.1 spot for both, The Associated Press noted.
“If it helps dispel the idea that women aren't as good 'Jeopardy!' players as men, that would be great. It's good to see women being applauded for being smart”, she said in regards to her achievement. Collins will be back in the future for the tournament of champions.