SPELLING BEE TV
Zaila started only a few years ago, after her father, Jawara Spacetime, watched the bee on TV and realized his daughter's affinity for doing complicated math in her head could translate well to spelling. Many of top Scripps spellers start competing as young as kindergarten. I have a feeling this isn't the last time you'll be making history. "I can go out, like my Guinness world records, just leave it right there and walk off."Ĭongratulations, Zaila! We're all so proud of you. "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," Zaila said. She described spelling as a side hobby, even though she routinely practiced for seven hours a day. The 14-year-old from Harvey, Louisiana, is a basketball prodigy who owns three Guinness world records for dribbling multiple basketballs simultaneously and hopes to one day play in the WNBA or even coach in the NBA. Zaila has other priorities, which perhaps explains how she came to dominate this year's bee. Zaila's win breaks a streak of at least one Indian American champion every year since 2008. The bee, however, has still been a showcase for spellers of color over the past two decades, with kids of South Asian descent dominating the competition. The only previous Black champion was also the only international winner: Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica in 1998. "I was pretty relaxed on the subject of Murraya and pretty much any other word I got," Zaila said. Meet Zaila Avant-garde, 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee champion, multiple Guinness World Records holder and basketball prodigyĭeclared the champion, Zaila jumped and twirled with joy, flinching in surprise only when confetti was shot onto the stage.She even thought of MacNolia Cox, who in 1936 became the first Black finalist at the bee and wasn't allowed to stay in the same hotel as the rest of the spellers.īut she never let the moment become too big for her, and when she heard what turned out to be her winning word - "Murraya," a genus of tropical Asiatic and Australian trees - she beamed with confidence. She knew Black kids around the country were watching Thursday night's ESPN2 telecast, waiting to be inspired and hoping to follow in the footsteps of someone who looked like them.
Zaila knew she would be the first African American winner of the bee. Zaila Avant-garde understood the significance of what she was doing as she stood on the Scripps National Spelling Bee stage, peppering pronouncer Jacques Bailly with questions about Greek and Latin roots.