Claire Sattler lived every young Jeopardy! fan’s dream by winning the 2018 Teen Tournament, taking home the $100,000 grand prize. But her dream turned into a bit of nightmare after facing online bullying. “I was more nervous about the internet’s reaction,” she told the Naples Daily News in 2018. “Twitter very much decided I was the villain of the finals for some reason other than the fact that I talk a lot.”
Sattler, who now attends Yale University, shared examples of the harassment she faced in a recent TikTok. “What was it like being on teen jeopardy?” the opening text reads. What follows is “stalkers,” “nationwide bullying,” and “being accused of having $3x with a 79 year old man [host Alex Trebek] (as a 16 year old) for the answers (because you weren’t smart enough to win on your own apparently).”
The video (set to a remix of Bastille’s “Pompeii” where the lyrics are replaced by the words “emotional damage”) ends on a lighter note, with Sattler making fun of herself for dabbing on the show. But’s that’s a lot for anyone to face, let alone a teenager.
You can watch the TikTok below.
In 2020, Sattler gave some advice for aspiring Jeopardy! contestants. “I would say, get your plastic toilet paper holder out and learn how to buzz. And I would say study up on, situationally, what you should do for betting,” she told the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science. “There’s only a few betting strategies you should employ, but if you don’t know the strategy of the game before, it’s hard to come up with those ideas on the spot.” Also, stay off social media. This is good advice for anyone, honestly.
(Via Decider)