It's very old news that the lovely Andrea Stelzer, Miss SA 1985, was withdrawn from the Miss Universe 1985 pageant due to threats by anit-Apartheid activists to disrupt the pageant in Miami if she competed. What was supposed to be third-time-lucky for Andrea, turned out to be a nightmare.In 1982 and 1984 she finished a very close second to Odette Scrooby and Letitia Snyman respectively in the Miss SA Universe pageant. Both Odette and Letitia competed well in their respective years at Miss Universe. Odette placed 6th and, but for a computer glitch, should have made the Top 5, and Letitia was the 1st runner-up.
Reason tells one that a contestant that misses winning narrowly to two world beaters should, all things being equal, herself be a world-beater. Let us not forget that as a 24-year-old pageant "dinosaur", she placed 6th at Miss Universe 1989 whilst representing Germany. Her excellent pageant pedigree was further confirmed when she placed 6th at the Miss All Nations 1990 pageant as a 25-year-old.
To add insult to injury, she had earlier been sent to the Miss Hawaiian Tropic 1986 pageant as a consolation for not attending the Miss Universe pageant the year before. Politics dealt her yet another bum hand when, as the red hot favourite, she only placed 3rd behind the winner, Yvonne Balliache, who could later only manage a 6th place at Miss Venezuela 1987.
In the accompanying photograph, Andrea models the evening gown she was to wear at the Miss Universe 1985 pageant. She did not get the opportunity to parade in the blue "dolphin" gown at Miss Universe, but she did wear the gown when she crowned her successor, Sandy McCormack, the following year.
For Andrea the "dolphin" gown was definitely a Miss and a Splash.