Born and raised in the small town of Skelleftea in Northern Sweden, Victoria Silvstedt trained as a child to become a competitive skier. While still a teenager, she entered a different kind of competition, winning runner-up honors in the 1993 Miss Sweden competition and going on to represent Sweden in the Miss World contest. Soon afterwards, she met a modeling agent, who brought Silvstedt to Paris, where she began her modeling career. It was in 1996, however, that Silvstedt first attracted worldwide attention as Playboy magazine's Miss December, eventually winning the Playmate of the Year title. Since then she has appeared in numerous Playboy videos and had been featured as the Guess girl in ads for the clothing company worldwide. As a recording artist signed to the EMI label, she has already earned two gold records for singles in Europe.