459 - What Led You To Win The Squid Game Challenge? Mai Whelan - Season 1 Winner
Published: December 11, 2025
Duration: 59:14
Mai Whelan is a Vietnamese American woman who became the Season 1 winner of Squid Game: The Challenge. Mai shares her life story, beginning as a young refugee who fled Vietnam at eight years old after the fall of Saigon, to becoming a U.S. Navy service member at just eighteen. She went on to serve two decades in the Navy before continuing her public service career as a visa interview adjudicator for the U.S. government.
Her journey is defined by resilience, sacrifice, and a determination to rebuild life from the ground up — the same strength she la...