Zaila Avant-garde, a 14-year-old from New Orleans, Louisiana, has won the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
This has become a historic moment as her winning makes her the first African American contestant to win in 93 editions of the competition. The only Black winner before Zaila Avant was Jody-Anne Maxwell, who represented Jamaica in 1998.
Zaila triumphed after correctly spelling “Murraya” (a type of tree), to seal the championship. To get there, the teen had to navigate her way through words like “querimonious,” “solidungulate” and “Nepeta”, a word she had to reset on, and let out a joyous jump after her correct spelling.
The highlight of the winning moment was when Zaila is seen in a viral video asking “does this word contain like the English word Murray, which could be the name of a comedian, or just an English name in general?”, and this made the audience burst out into laughter. However, without much help from the judges, she went ahead and spelt the word to become the winner.
It is worth mentioning that Zaila waded off competition from 11 finalists from other countries. She will receive 50,000 dollars as cash prize. Chaitra Thummala, a 12-year-old from Frisco, Texas, was the runner-up.
Zaila and Chaitra are coached by Cole Shafer-Ray, a 20-year-old Yale student who was the 2015 Scripps runner-up. Shafer-Ray mentioned that Zaila has a “natural talent for spelling”.
Meanwhile, Zaila described spelling as a side hobby, although she routinely practiced for seven hours a day.
Nonetheless, she stated that winning the national spelling bee is just another goal she can now put on her list of accomplishments.
“I kind of thought I would never be into spelling again, but I’m also happy that I’m going to make a clean break from it. I can go out, like my Guinness World Records, just leave it right there and walk off”.
Well, this win is just one in a long list of achievements for the champion.
In addition to her spelling bee crown, Zaila was the Guinness World Records title holder for most bounce juggles in one minute.
According to Guinness World Records, Zaila started dribbling when she was just 5 years old and hopes to one day become a professional basketball player and join the WNBA. Zaila speaking on this said:
“I think the more that the achievements and triumphs of women are promoted and publicized, the more likely it is that other girls all around the world will see that they can do any and everything that they put their minds to”.
The National Spelling Bee competition began with 209 spellers, ranging from 9 to 15 years old, from five countries: the US, the Bahamas, Canada, Ghana, and Japan. And 11 contestants entered the finals.
First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden was on hand to cheer on the competitors at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.
The event was canceled last year due to the pandemic, for the first time since World War II.
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