Indian-Americans dominate the top US spellers’ finals in the spelling bee
With 11 finalists assembling Thursday night in a convention center ballroom outside of Washington to display their command of Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged, the Scripps National Spelling Bee is about to announce a winner.
Due to an eight-way tie in 2019 and the COVID-19 epidemic that wiped it out a year later, the bee has experienced several modifications. The aptitude and commitment of the best spellers in the English language, however, remain unaltered.
Top spellers often study for 3–4 hours every day during the week and longer on the weekends. They still manage to flourish in other fields too; for example, candidate Charlotte Walsh, 14, of Arlington, Virginia, recently finished an AP mathematics course while still in eighth school.
The bee first took place in 1925, and pupils up to eighth grade may participate. Spellers become eligible by placing first in local bees around the nation. The competition for this year began with 229 children onstage.
The majority of this year’s candidates are Indian Americans, maintaining a 20-year trend. Twenty-one of the previous 23 winners were of South Asian descent.
The winner on Thursday will take home more than $50,000 in cash and gifts. As the face of the bee, champions often embark on a media tour and make a number of appearances during the year. Many continue to participate in the bee in other capacities, such as serving on the panel that chooses the words.
Involved in the bee webcast ever since, 2015 co-champion Vanya Shivashankar was this year appointed to the position of master of ceremonies, replacing “Star Trek” actor and literacy proponent LeVar Burton.
Prior to the “octo-champs” of 2019, the bee had co-champions, but ties are now prohibited by the regulations. This happened from 2014 to 2016. If there is still no winner after one hour and 55 minutes, the remaining spellers will participate in a tiebreaker lightning round.
The only returning competitor is 14-year-old South Jordan, Utah resident Surya Kapu. Last year, he tied for sixth place.
Sarah Fernandes, a fifth-grader from Omaha, Nebraska, who is 11 years old, is the youngest semifinalist still alive. She is four months younger than the youngest winner ever, 11-year-old co-champion Nihar Janga.
A 13-year-old from San Jose, California named Shradha Rachamreddy enters with possibly the greatest spelling résumé, having triumphed in a number of very competitive online and live spelling bees that competitors use to train for Scripps. She is one of four Californian finalists, along with Vikrant Chintanaboina, 14, of San Jose; Dhruv Subramanian, 12, of San Ramon; and Arth Dalsania, 14, of Camarillo.
The other contenders:
— Dev Shah, a 14-year-old Florida resident from Largo.
— 12-year-old Rochester Hills, Michigan resident Aryan Khedkar.
— Pennsylvanian teenager Pranav Anandh, 14 years old, from Glen Mills.
— 12-year-old Tarini Nandakumar from Round Rock, Texas.
