Pageants
Cole's first major pageant win came in 1995 when she won the title Miss Tennessee Teen USA. She was a top six finalist at the Miss Teen USA pageant in that year, and won the Miss Photogenic award, finishing fourth overall. Cole would later win the 1997 Miss Teen All American title.
After winning Miss Tennessee USA and Miss USA 2000, Cole went on to compete at the Miss Universe pageant, held in Nicosia, Cyprus later that year. Her performance was enough to secure her a spot among the five finalists, and brought the U.S. back into the semifinals (after Kimberly Pressler had failed to advance the year before, breaking a streak of consecutive placements that had been going since 1977). She also placed fifth overall. She became the first woman to place in the top five at all three pageants and her record was not surpassed until 2006 by Tara Conner.
As Miss USA, Cole was a representative of the Miss Universe Organization. Her "sister" 2000 titleholders were Lara Dutta (Miss Universe, of India) and Jillian Parry (Miss Teen USA, of Pennsylvania)
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