Video links:
- "Meet Mikayla" video at CBS.com
- Mikayla's pre-game interview with EW.com's Dalton Ross
- Lingerie Football League ad with Mikayla (h/t smokeitgood)
- Mikayla's pre-game interview with Xfinity TV's Gordon Holmes
- Mikayla Wingle's official Survivor: South Pacific CBS.com bio
- Mikayla Wingle on facebook: Personal page, fan page; Mikayla's twitter; personal ILuvMiki.com website (slow); wix.com photo gallery.
Collection of images from the pre-game and circa Ep1-era footage provided with the cast release videos:
Vidcap gallery: Click on thumbnails to expand; use arrow keys to navigate between large pics.
From her MSN.com contestant profile:
"Mikayla says: I'm very athletic and they (casting) said I have a manipulative personality, which I don't think I do. I just have a way of persuading people.
Jeff [Probst] says: She's a lot like Boston Rob."
From her EW.com new contestant picture caption (by Dalton Ross):
"If you were thinking of doubting Mikayla's toughness, think again. The Playboy cover girl plays linebacker and cornerback for the Tampa Breeze of the Lingerie Football League. 'We hit just as hard as the guys. We wear less padding than them,' she says in perhaps the understatement of the year before turning her attention to the other contestants. 'I can probably squat half these people over my shoulder.' But will Mikayla — who was originally recruited for The Amazing Race — pull an Ometepe and let a returning player come in and walk all over her into the finals? 'I don't think anyone wants to be embarrassed like that again,' she says. 'It's not going to happen like that again.'"
Excerpts from her official CBS Survivor: South Pacific bio page:
"Personal claim to fame: I was on the cover of Playboy February 2011 and met the hard working Hugh Hefner.
Inspiration in life: My mother is my inspiration. She is a strong, independent woman who always taught me to reach for my goals in life. She raised my brother and me as a single mother and we never felt we were without anything we wanted. I can only hope to be half the mother she is.
Hobbies: I like going to Broadway plays, riding quads, camping and going to the beach. Growing up in Northern New Jersey gave me the love of being outdoors.
Pet peeves: Dishonest people, liars and people who think they are better than everyone else.
3 words to describe you: Outspoken, humorous and witty.
Survivor contestant you are most like: Jane. She stands up for herself and never lets her morals go. She is a hard worker and loves her dogs just like I love my pup, Diesel.
Reason for being on Survivor: It is my mom's favorite show and we have been watching since I was 10 years old. She told me that if I ever got the opportunity to be on it we would jump at the chance!
Why you think you'll 'survive' Survivor: I feel that I am a strong independent woman and I know I will strive to prevail. Quitters never win and winners never quit.
Why you think you will be the sole Survivor: Playing sports all my life, I feel I am a competitor at heart. I am very athletic and am very likeable. I plan to use these qualities to get me to the end!"
Summary of evidence for Mikayla (Miki) Wingle being on Survivor: South Pacific.
- Polonium (at Sucks, 7/22/11) noted a "Mikayla Marie" facebook user added both Coach and Brandon Hantz as facebook friends.
- new Sucks user elpollo (7/22/11) helpfully identifies the mysterious fan as Mikayla Wingle, and adds a link to Mikayla's brand-new (as of 7/14) facebook fan page, among other links.
- Her normal twitter activity is on the order of 5-10 short tweets a day, usually with randomly repeated letters and/or inserted periods. This dropped to about 10 total during the six weeks of filming, almost all of which were retweets or lengthy, grammatically correct links to self-promotional content (and thus likely ghost-written).
- After a gap during filming, her first photo upload to lockerz.com post-filming was on July 9th (the day the cast returned), stating "Happy to be b back at the crib!!" As noted by Polonium at Sucks, there's also this one, of course (circa 1 week post-filming). We've combined it with a pre-game shot, at right, for comparison purposes. (We're not sure there's a huge amount of visible weight loss, but there it is, regardless.)
- One of her favorite photographers posted "call me ;)" on her Model Mayhem page on July 14th. She responded with: "Homeee:)"
