Mittenaere competed in Miss Universe 2016 where she succeeded Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach of the Philippines.
 She was the only European delegate to progress through the competition.
Mittenaere became only the second woman from her country to win the crown after Christiane Martel won Miss Universe 1953, breaking France's 63-year title drought.
Mittenaere is the first European winner since Oxana Fedorova of Russia, who was crowned Miss Universe 2002 but soon after dethroned, and the first European titleholder to complete her year as Miss Universe since Mona Grudt of Norway who won Miss Universe 1990.

In the first part of the question and answer portion, Mittenaere called for opened borders.
She was asked by Harvey : "Given today's worldwide refugee crisis, do countries have an obligation to accept refugees or do they have a right to close their borders?"
Mittenaere replied:
Throughout the world, people can choose to have borders open or close.
In Europe, we have open borders.
In France, we want to have the most globalisation that we can.
We want to have the biggest exchange of people that we can.
Maybe someday that will change, but now we have open borders.

According to one of the judges, Mickey Boardman, who wrote about his experience as a Miss Universe judge in The New York Times, "it was the question-and-answer portion that put her over the top.
While the other contestants didn’t seem to actually answer the question about a mistake they had made in life and what they had learned from it, she was poised and well spoken".
Indeed, the top three contestants were asked the same final question by Steve Harvey: "Name something over the course of your life that you failed at, and tell us what you learned from that experience ?"
and she replied:
I have failed several times in my life.
I thought I had failed my first year in medical school because my name wasn’t on the passing list.
So, the very same day I went to buy a new set of medical books to keep on studying.
I think when you fail, you need to stand up and keep going, we are all able to do so.
If I don’t win tonight, I will still keep on smiling tomorrow because I am proud to be part of the three finalists.
I’ve learnt a lot from my failures and happily, I did end up passing my first year of medical school.
Mittenaere competed in Miss Universe 2016 where she succeeded Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach of the Philippines.  She was the only European delegate to progress through the competition. Mittenaere became only the second woman from her country to win the crown after Christiane Martel won Miss Universe 1953, breaking France's 63-year title drought. Mittenaere is the first European winner since Oxana Fedorova of Russia, who was crowned Miss Universe 2002 but soon after dethroned, and the first European titleholder to complete her year as Miss Universe since Mona Grudt of Norway who won Miss Universe 1990.
In the first part of the question and answer portion, Mittenaere called for opened borders. She was asked by Harvey : "Given today's worldwide refugee crisis, do countries have an obligation to accept refugees or do they have a right to close their borders?" Mittenaere replied:
Throughout the world, people can choose to have borders open or close. In Europe, we have open borders. In France, we want to have the most globalisation that we can. We want to have the biggest exchange of people that we can. Maybe someday that will change, but now we have open borders.
According to one of the judges, Mickey Boardman, who wrote about his experience as a Miss Universe judge in The New York Times, "it was the question-and-answer portion that put her over the top. While the other contestants didn’t seem to actually answer the question about a mistake they had made in life and what they had learned from it, she was poised and well spoken". Indeed, the top three contestants were asked the same final question by Steve Harvey: "Name something over the course of your life that you failed at, and tell us what you learned from that experience ?" and she replied:
I have failed several times in my life. I thought I had failed my first year in medical school because my name wasn’t on the passing list. So, the very same day I went to buy a new set of medical books to keep on studying. I think when you fail, you need to stand up and keep going, we are all able to do so. If I don’t win tonight, I will still keep on smiling tomorrow because I am proud to be part of the three finalists. I’ve learnt a lot from my failures and happily, I did end up passing my first year of medical school.
Iris Mittenaere