93rd Scripps National Spelling Bee
{
Aerial view of bee location
DateJuly 8, 2021
LocationESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, Bay Lake, Florida
WinnerZaila Avant-garde
Age14
ResidenceHarvey, Louisiana
Winning wordMurraya
No. of contestants209[1]
PronouncerJacques Bailly and Brian Sietsema
Preceded by92nd Scripps National Spelling Bee
Followed by94th Scripps National Spelling Bee

The 93rd Scripps National Spelling Bee was held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Bay Lake, Florida. The finals were held on July 8, 2021, and televised on ESPN2 and ESPN.[2] It was won by Zaila Avant-garde, the first African American to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee,[1][3][4] and the second black person to do so (after Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica).[5]

Field

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 spelling bee has been cancelled for the previous year.

For 2021, the first round was held virtually on June 12[6] and had 209 spellers from the United States and several other countries. There were eleven finalists: ten Americans and one Bahamian, the first from his country to make it to the final.[7][8]

Competition

Jill Biden, the current First Lady of the United States, attended in person. She previously attended back in 2009.[9]

The competition went 18 rounds in total. The third-to-last speller was eliminated in round 14 after misspelling athanor, a type of alchemical furnace. Avant-garde and the runner-up, Chaitra Thummala, then competed head-to-head for three rounds. In the last of these, Thummala misspelled neroli oil, giving Zaila Avant-garde the opportunity to spell murraya correctly for the victory.

Avant-garde is the second black person to win the competition, after Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica, who remains the only person not from the United States to do so.[5]

New rules

Following the 2019 final where eight players tied at the end of the competition, a second list of championship words was added for a tiebreaking round. When the tiebreaking round is used after all championship words have been exhausted, or the round concludes after 1 hour, 55 minutes of the televised broadcast, remaining contestants, in numerical order, spell the list of championship words in 90 seconds. They can still ask for definition, language of origin, part of speech, alternate pronunciations, and the use in a sentence, but that will be part of the 90-second period. The contestant who spells the most words correctly in the spell-off round will be declared champion, with a tiebreaker of greater percentage of correctly spelled words in the round will determine the winner. A tie may still exist if the percentage is identical. However, in the actual final, the round was not used, as the Bee did not run overlong.[10]

Word list championship round

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Louisiana teen becomes the first African American contestant to win National Spelling Bee". CNN. July 8, 2021.
  2. ↑ "Louisiana teen Zaila Avant-garde correctly spells 'murraya' to win Scripps National Spelling Bee". ESPN. July 8, 2021.
  3. ↑ Cramer, Maria; Yuhas, Alan (9 July 2021). "Zaila Avant-garde Makes Spelling History, and Other Moments From the Bee". New York Times. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
  4. ↑ Albert, Victoria (2021-07-09). "14-year-old Zaila Avant-garde wins the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee". www.cbsnews.com. Archived from the original on 2021-07-09. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  5. 1 2 Aratani, Laura (2021-07-09). "Scripps National Spelling Bee 2021: Zaila Avant-garde becomes first African American winner". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2021-07-09. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  6. ↑ "2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee season to launch June 12". Scripps. Retrieved 2021-07-10.
  7. ↑ Bowman, Emma; Farrington, Dana (2021-07-09). "Zaila Avant-garde Becomes First African American To Win Scripps Spelling Bee". NPR. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  8. ↑ Prieur, Danielle (2021-07-08). "Roy Seligman Wants to Win Big for the Bahamas in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Orlando, And Then (Like All Spelling and Super Bowl Winners) He's Going to Disney". 90.7 WMFE. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  9. ↑ Nuckols, Ben (2021-07-08). "First lady congratulates National Spelling Bee finalists". AP NEWS. Archived from the original on 2021-07-08. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  10. ↑ Ortega, Christian. "Scripps National Spelling Bee 2021: How to watch, live stream, TV info, rules, finalists". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
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