Amy Schneider's winning streak breaks a 'Jeopardy!' glass ceiling

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January 10, 2022

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Mariah Bell will be the oldest U.S. figure skating champion in nearly a century, Citi prepares to fire unvaccinated employees, and Amy Schneider is breaking a glass ceiling on Jeopardy!. Have a productive Monday.
– Who’s the record-setter? Have you watched any Jeopardy! in the past two months? If so, you’ve likely seen Amy Schneider, who on Friday became the first woman and fourth-ever contestant to pass $1 million in earnings during the trivia show’s regular season.
Schneider’s Jeopardy! run began on Nov. 17. Friday’s episode, in which she took home $42,000, was her 28th game. Her winning streak has attracted attention for a few more reasons: it’s part of a trend toward longer stretches on the show for top contestants, starting with Ken Jennings in 2004 and picking up speed over the past two years with players James Holzhauer and Matt Amodio. And, because Schneider is a trans woman.
Schneider has described her gender as just one part of her identity—a part of her alongside other qualities like her intelligence and even her new place in Jeopardy! history. “I don’t actually think about being trans all that often, and so when appearing on national television, I wanted to represent that part of my identity accurately: as important, but also relatively minor,” she said after wearing a trans pride pin during a November episode. “But I also didn’t want it to seem as if it was some kind of shameful secret.”
The contestant wrote an essay in December for the site Defector in which she reflected on how her identity relates to her intelligence: her answer to the frequent question, “how are you so smart?” “I am white, and until well into adulthood, was perceived as male,” she wrote. “Had that not been the case, my intelligence would have been seen as surprising at best, and threatening at worst, which undoubtedly would have impacted my intellectual development. But it was the case, and I was never discouraged from acquiring knowledge.”
Schneider’s record-breaking winning streak has been a rare bright spot for Jeopardy! fans, coming months after the show badly bungled the appointment of Alex Trebek’s successor. If you’ll remember, Mike Richards, previously an executive producer who was briefly appointed host, was found to have made several sexist comments during a series of podcast recordings.
After the host drama took up so much Jeopardy! oxygen, it’s refreshing to have a new story for women on the beloved game show. And who knows? Maybe Schneider will become the first woman to cross the $2 million mark.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
The Broadsheet, Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women, is coauthored by Kristen Bellstrom, Emma Hinchliffe, and Claire Zillman. Today’s edition was curated by Emma Hinchliffe.

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