After a four-month postponement triggered by Hurricane Melissa, the 11th edition of the Miss Bikini Jamaica International competition finally kicked off to a warm reception at Neil’s Auditorium in Mandeville, Manchester. When the final scores were tallied, Suzan Dowdie walked away with the coveted top crown, adding an extra Best Figure accolade to her haul to cap off a remarkable night of competition.
Rounding out the top four placements, Gabrielle Whyte secured the runner-up position, while Moya-Maye Nanan claimed third place and Olivia Harley finished in fourth. What makes Dowdie’s victory even more compelling is the extraordinary adversity she overcame to reach the stage: a devastating Hurricane Melissa destroyed her family home in Giddy Hall, St Elizabeth, leaving her facing profound personal loss and disruption even as she stepped into the competition.
Rather than letting the storm derail her dreams, Dowdie turned her hardship into purpose. As both a construction forewoman and the executive director of the Lil Suz Foundation, a community nonprofit she launched in the wake of the disaster, she has dedicated her post-hurricane energy to lifting up her neighbors. “Melissa knocked me down,” Dowdie shared in an interview after her win. “I am currently helping a lot of people in Giddy Hall… that is where Lil Suz Foundation came in. Currently we are building houses in Giddy Hall for persons whose homes were damaged and destroyed during the hurricane. I sheltered a lot of people in my home during and after the storm.”
The road to the 11th staging was anything but smooth for event organizers. The competition was originally scheduled for December 2024, but event founder Dwight Dunn made the call to shift the date from peak hurricane season to April 2025, a direct response to the widespread damage caused by Melissa. Even after the date change, the storm left lasting impacts on the contestant pool: originally slated to feature 12 competitors, multiple contestants were displaced by the hurricane and forced to drop out due to catastrophic financial strain. A handful of remaining contestants also withdrew later in the process, as they could no longer cover the costs of required training, leaving 10 participants to compete on the opening night.
Founded 12 years ago, the Miss Bikini Jamaica International competition has built a steady following through years of adaptive evolution. It launched its first edition at Oracabessa, St Mary’s iconic James Bond Beach, before relocating to Kingston for eight consecutive stagings. When the COVID-19 pandemic upended live events in 2020, organizers pivoted once again, moving the competition to Mandeville and hosting it as a virtual production. The contest returned to its traditional in-person format in 2022, and has remained in Mandeville ever since.
Despite all the setbacks that marked this year’s staging, Dunn is already looking ahead to expanding the competition beyond Jamaica’s borders, with plans to host a staging in Florida in 2026. For the newly crowned champion, however, the focus remains on the ongoing recovery work in her community, proving that beauty pageantry can extend far beyond the stage to drive tangible, positive change for those in need.