African American Zaila Avant-garde wins 2021 Spelling Bee; Indian-Americans follow

Zaila Avant-garde, a 14-year-old basketball prodigy, has won the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee, becoming the first African American contestant to win in 93 editions of the prestigious competition.

Indian-Americans, who have been dominating the National Spelling Bee for years, had to be satisfied with the 2nd and 3rd positions. Chaitra Thummala, a 12-year-old from San Francisco and Bhavana Madini, 13, from New York won the second and third place at the keenly-fought competition, which was attended by US First Lady Jill Biden.

Avant-garde correctly spelt 'Murraya' - a genus of tropical Asiatic and Australian trees having pinnate leaves and flowers to win the competition and USD 50,000 prize money on Thursday.

Avant-garde outlasted a field of 11 finalists, including Indian-Americans, to win the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee title and the first-place prize of USD 50,000 at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida. The 8th-grader also became the first Louisiana resident and the first African-American to win the title in the competition's 93-year history. The only Black winner before was Jody-Anne Maxwell, representing Jamaica in 1998. A basketball prodigy, Avant-garde holds three Guinness World Records for her ability to dribble multiple basketballs at a time.

Avant-garde previously competed in 2019. She is an avid reader who demonstrated a strong interest in words from a very early age. Beyond her love for words and language, she enjoys learning new things, playing basketball, listening to music and podcasts, and hanging out with her family.