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Dec 17, 2006 9:17 pm US/Pacific
The Tribe Has Spoken: Yul Kwon Wins
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (CBS) ―
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Yul Kwon reacts to being named winner of "Survivor: Cook Islands" on Dec. 17, 2006.
CBS
His former competitors awarded Yul Kwon, the "godfather" of the CBS game "Survivor: Cook Islands," with the $1 million top prize Sunday in a classic finale that pitted brains vs. brawn.
Of the five remaining players, the two favorites headed into the final competition were Kwon, the brain with degrees from Stanford University and Yale Law School on his resume, and Oscar "Ozzy" Lusth, the effortless athlete who dominated athletic challenges as the game neared its end.
Kwon, 31, was born in Queens, New York to parents who emigrated from South Korea. The family moved to the West Coast and he was raised in California. As a teen, Kwon played varsity water polo and track and graduated high school valedictorian.
Kwon then attended Stanford University and obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in symbolic systems (theoretical computer science). While at Stanford, he received the James Lyons Award for Service, attended officer candidates school for the U.S. Marine Corps and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. Kwon went on to receive his Juris Doctor Degree from Yale Law School, where he served on the editorial board of the Yale Law Journal.
Kwon's diverse career straddled both the private and public sectors in law, business and technology. He practiced a mix of litigation, appellate, transactional and regulatory work at several law firms. He also served as a judicial clerk to a federal judge on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.
Kwon worked as a legislative aide to Sen. Joseph Lieberman in Washington, D.C., where he helped draft sections of the Homeland Security Bill and other technology-related legislation.
With the help of a rock-solid alliance with Oakley, Lee and Lusth, he systematically picked off other contestants at the game wore on.
Lusth, who has two years of Santa Barbara City College on his resume and works as a waiter near the surf in Venice, Calif., mastered the tropical game's physical challenges.
Lusth, 25, camped from Panama to San Diego last year. He moved fast in and out of the water and had a strong sense of balance, often key to winning competitions that guarantees contestants won't be eliminated.
This "Survivor" edition began with controversy, when contestants were segregated into teams along ethnic lines: white, black, Asian-American and Hispanic.
Although that sparked protests, it wasn't an enduring issue. The ethnic groupings were abandoned after only two episodes. The final contestants included a black woman, two Asian-Americans, one white man and one Hispanic man.
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
