Maria Samson

**Maria Samson** was a contestant on Season 3.

## Background

*Retrieved from CBC.ca*

Maria, a member of the Canadian National women’s rugby team, is one of Canada’s elite athletes. She joined the team in 2011, and was named Player of the Year the following year. While she has had to endure her share of injuries, undergoing six knee and two shoulder surgeries, she is always regained her spot on the National team.

Maria is also a passionate sports advocate, with the primary goal of promoting sport to young people and ensuring the women’s programs are given equal opportunity and resources. Maria matches her strength with smarts. She graduated top of her program from McGill University, and received academic scholarships throughout her studies. Outside of her intense training and competition schedule, Maria is a Commercial Advisor for Imperial Oil, even though it’s rare for an athlete at her level to also hold an extensive full time job.

With her physical abilities and sharp mind, Maria is a true competitor in every sense of the word, so the others vying for the Canada’s Smartest Person title better watch out!

## Episode 303

As Maria entered the stage with her competitors, a clip of her and the other five contestants, Rebecca Bromwich, Frankie Cena, Ryan Coelho, Gwyneth Foster, and Vanessa Vakharia, introducing themselves was shown. In this clip, Maria commented that her competitors better watch out and that they should not underestimate her. In the first challenge, the Speed Round, Maria received an overall percentage score of 72%. As a result, Maria finished in 1st place and was awarded 5 overall points.

With the first challenge and the resulting double elimination out of the way, a more elaborate clip presenting Vanessa, Frankie, Ryan, and Maria in that order was shown. In this clip, Maria revealed that she finished at the top of her class in engineering at McGill University and stated that the stereotype about jocks not being smart doesn't make sense because football players and rugby players have to be calculated when making certain moves. In the second challenge, Broken Register, Frankie and Maria both got 4 correct answers, but the former answered faster on average than the latter did. As a result, Maria finished in 2nd place and was awarded 3 overall points.

In the third challenge, Colour Blender, Maria got 4 correct answers. As a result, Maria finished in 1st place and was awarded 5 overall points.

In the fourth challenge, Screen Test, Maria was the second contestant to pitch her film and she had to pitch a musical film with a hockey dad protagonist and with the sun exploding at the end of it. She said, "Mr. Reitman, we're in a world right now where people need to be inspired. What better way to be inspired than a story about the parents who help their athletic children? This story is about a hockey dad and the style of the film is a musical because singing makes people happy. This is the backstory that many parents don't get to share for their children that go on to the NHL. That story about their parents, and especially their father, going on, going through all the struggles that he went through. The climax of the film is they're going off, they're going off to one of the biggest tournaments and the father, Roger, has sacrificed so much. They are driving off, they are almost at the rink, the sun is just about to come up, they're just about to go into the rink, and <CLAP> the sun explodes!" Guest judge Ivan Reitman commented that he appreciated Maria's creativity and that he liked that she gave a lot of detail as for why a musical is good for the world. Ivan ranked Maria in last place for her pitch and Maria was awarded 2 overall points as a result. After the first four challenges, Maria had received a total of 15 overall points. As a result, she finished in 2nd place and was congratulated by Jessi, along with Frankie, for qualifying for the Gauntlet.

In the fifth and final challenge, the Gauntlet, Maria maintained a slight lead over Frankie over the first three sections, but the two were neck and neck throughout most of the musical section. However, Frankie hit a road block and struggled to get past the final gate, which allowed for Maria to overtake him and eventually complete the linguistic section. Ultimately, Frankie stopped at the musical section as Maria hit the buzzer, which signalled her victory and her spot in the season finale. After the challenge ended and Maria was declared the third finalist of the season, Frankie and Maria celebrated onstage with Jessi.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 https://www.cbc.ca/smartestperson/participants/maria-samson