Brayden Smith, a voracious reader and former captain of his high school quiz bowl team that became five times “Jeopardy!” champion in some of the last shows presented by Alex Trebek, died on February 5 in Las Vegas. He was 24 years old.
Mr. Smith’s death was confirmed in an online obituary. He did not list a cause of death. Her mother, Deborah Smith, said on Twitter that his son had died “unexpectedly”.
Mr. Smith, she said, achieved a lifelong dream by winning “Jeopardy!” as a participant in some of the final programs presented by Trebek before Trebek died in November at the age of 80, after a battle with cancer.
In six shows, Smith won five times, winning $ 115,798 and the nickname Alex’s Last Great Champion, said the obituary. Mr. Smith said he was looking forward to competing in the program’s Tournament of Champions against his “trivia idols”.
“‘Danger!’ it’s much better than anything I could have imagined, “said Smith in a video released by” Jeopardy! “last month.” Every moment, since the last time I was in the studio, was a moment that I wanted to go back to. “
Smith said in the video that he has been touched by Trebek’s perseverance on the program since Trebek’s announcement in March 2019 that he learned he had stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
“Now everyone knows that he is sick, and making an angry face and going every day and continuing to cheer America and the world, especially this year, was really proof of how incredible he was,” he said. Mr. Smith.
Mr. Trebek was clearly impressed by Mr. Smith’s knowledge of trivia, telling other competitors after one of Mr. Smith’s victories, they played well, but “you found Billy Buzz Saw – and he took no prisoners”.
Brayden Andrew Smith was born in Henderson, Nevada, on September 6, 1996, the second of four children to Scott and Deborah (Rudy) Smith.
At Liberty High School in Henderson, he was a semifinalist for the National Merit Scholar and led the Quiz Bowl team to finish as runner-up state. For his outstanding performance, he won a scholarship to college.
He graduated last year from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in economics and planned to become a lawyer in the federal government. He had recently worked as an intern at the Cato Institute in Washington, researching criminal justice reform.
“JEOPARDIA! family is heartbroken by the tragic loss of Brayden Smith, ”the program said on Twitter. “He was kind, funny and absolutely brilliant.”
Jack Begg contributed research.