Mentor Profile
Michelle Lopez
Age: 72
District: 9
Hunger Games: 20th, aged 17
Mentored By: Charity Green
Kills in the Arena: 3
Preferred Weapons: Machete
Tribute: Holly Thorpe
Mentoring Record: 22 Games/1 Victor - Marcel Fielding (41st Games)
For the fifth time in the history of the Hunger Games, a brother-sister pair of tributes from the same district are about to enter the arena. However, Michelle and her younger brother Esteban were the first, when both were reaped for the 20th Annual Hunger Games. Like many siblings, their past history had been patched with spats and arguments - something both were willing to admit to during interviews - but they came together when it mattered, fighting alongside each other until Esteban's death close to the end of the Games.
Quick-thinking and ruthless when necessary, Michelle managed to fight through the arena while looking out for someone else, something that many victors would agree isn't an easy feat. Among the searing heat in dense forests of the arena - that year, the Games were held in woodland surrounding a large lake - the traditional alliances met their early demise through infighting, opening up the field to other tributes, something that Michelle made sure to take advantage of, finally killing the boy from District 1 to claim victory in the 20th Annual Hunger Games.
Unsurprisingly, Michelle was a victor who struggled in the immediate years after her victor, as everything surrounding the Games that now dominated her life reminded her of her late brother, something she was willing to admit whenever distracted during future Games. However, with the support of her former mentor Charity, she was able to move onwards with her life and adapt. With a talent for playing chess that she pursued avidly - notably winning a major Capitol tournament in her thirties - Michelle began to move forwards again.
Eventually she settled down and married a younger man in her district, and the couple are together to this day, living together in Victors' Village with four children.
Over time, Victors' Village has filled up around her, as District 9 have scored three further victories in the Games, their total of five victors more than almost all other outer districts. Her only success as a mentor came when she helped Marcel Fielding - a name even the most casual of Hunger Games fans will be familiar with - win the 41st Hunger Games. Slowly, over time, and particularly since Holly Thorpe's dominating victory just over fifteen years ago, Michelle has become more withdrawn from the Games, content to see out the remainder of her life in a comfort well-earned from a busy life. Since the adoption of Hope's Rule, she's rarely seen in the Capitol.
With the Third Quarter Quell, Michelle has accepted her responsibility to the other tributes of her district, and has stepped forward as a mentor once more. Calm, intelligent and clearly with an eye for strategy, Michelle is very much in the same mould as her tribute this year, Holly Thorpe. One of the highest scoring tributes this year aside from the traditional alliance and the curveballs thrown by the star-crossed loves of District 12, this connection leads many experts to think that District 9 are the dark horses in this year's Games.
If they do win this year, Michelle's mentoring expertise will play a large part in that victory.