Thirteen-year-old Katharine Tuck’s sneakers smell as bad as they look. Now, at least, the Utah seventh-grader can afford some new ones.

On Tuesday, she out-ranked six other children to win $2,500 in the 32nd annual National Odor-Eaters Rotten Sneaker Contest, stinking up the joint with a pair of well-worn 1½-year-old Nikes so noxious they had the judges wincing.

“I’m so proud of the little stinker,” said her mother, Paula Tuck.

Katharine and her father missed a connecting flight and had to drive part of the way to Vermont. Their luggage still had not arrived Tuesday.

Her mother had the foresight to warn her not to ship her prized shoes in her checked baggage. Mercifully for airport security screeners, she did not wear them, either, opting to carry them in her purse.

Yeah – I definitely think she should have worn them through the TSA insecurity maze.