How do you spell pressure? The Scripps National Spelling Bee hopes to find out, as the annual competition is to crown a champion tonight.
After preliminary rounds earlier this week, 11 teenage finalists gather Thursday night in a convention center ballroom outside Washington to demonstrate their mastery of Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary.
The winner will be rewarded with the Champion’s Trophy and a $50,000 prize.
The Bee has undergone many changes following an eight-way tie in 2019 and the COVID-19 pandemic, which wiped it out a year later.
But one thing that hasn’t changed is the skill and dedication of top English spellers.
11 Scripps National Spelling Bee finalists pose for a photo after the first day of competition. All are between 11 and 14 years old, four are from California
The typical workload of a high-level speller: 3 to 4 hours of study each weekday, and more on weekends.
And yet, they still find time to excel in other disciplines — 14-year-old finalist Charlotte Walsh of Arlington, Va., just completed an advanced-level calculus course — in eighth grade.
The bee began in 1925 and is open to students through eighth grade. Spellers qualify by winning regional bees across the country. There were 229 children on stage at the start of this year’s competition.
Most of this year’s finalists are American Indians, continuing a trend that has lasted two decades. Twenty-one of the last 23 champions have South Asian heritage.
Thursday’s winner will receive over $50,000 in cash and prizes. Champions usually go on a media tour and make a series of appearances throughout the year as the face of the bee.
Many end up returning to the bee in other roles, including as part of Scripps’ word picker panel.
Vanya Shivashankar, co-champion in 2015, has been involved in the Bee TV broadcast ever since and this year was promoted to the role of emcee – a task that was given to the ‘Star Trek’ actor last year. and literacy advocate LeVar Burton.
The bee had co-champions from 2014 to 2016 before the “octo-champions” of 2019, but ties are impossible under the current rules.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee is set to crown a champion, with 11 finalists gathering Thursday night in a convention center ballroom outside Washington to demonstrate their mastery of Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary
Aiden Wijeyakulasuriya of Madison, WI, representing the Wisconsin State Journal, lost in the semifinals
Surya Kapu, a 14-year-old from South Jordan, Utah, is the only returning finalist. He finished tied for fifth last year
Shradha Rachamreddy, a 13-year-old from San Jose, Calif., arrives with arguably the strongest spelling resume, having won several highly competitive online and in-person bees that spellers use to prepare for Scripps.
Vikrant Chintanaboina, 13, is one of four finalists from California
Dhruv Subramanian, 12, from San Ramon, California, can’t contain his excitement
Arth Dalsania of Thousand Oaks, Calif., set to spell in the semifinals
Dev Shah, a 14-year-old from Largo, Florida, makes his speech to his watching competitors
If the contest reaches the 1 hour and 55 minute mark without a winner, the remaining spellers will face off in a whirlwind tiebreaker.
Surya Kapu, a 14-year-old from South Jordan, Utah, is the only returning finalist. He finished tied for fifth last year.
The youngest remaining semifinalist is 11-year-old fifth grader Sarah Fernandes from Omaha, Nebraska, who is four months younger than the youngest winner ever, Nihar Janga, co-champion in 2016 at 11 years old.
Shradha Rachamreddy, a 13-year-old from San Jose, Calif., arrives with arguably the strongest spelling resume ever, having won several highly competitive online and in-person bees that spellers use to prepare for Scripps.
She is one of four finalists from California, along with 14-year-old Vikrant Chintanaboina, also from San Jose; Dhruv Subramanian, 12, from San Ramon; and Arth Dalsania, 14, of Camarillo.
The other finalists are Dev Shah, a 14-year-old from Largo, Florida; Aryan Khedkar, 12, of Rochester Hills, Mich.; Pranav Anandh, a 14-year-old from Glen Mills, Pennsylvania; and Tarini Nandakumar, a 12-year-old boy from Round Rock, Texas.
The semi-finals in particular were a triumph of efficiency for Scripps and his word selection panel, perhaps aided by a standardized pre-bee test, the first of its kind, which allowed Scripps to assess spelling abilities.
Of the 55 quarter-finals, 33 were eliminated in the first round of semi-final spelling. The word panel followed through on its plan to make the vocabulary questions fairer than last year; only two were sounded on definitions.
The youngest remaining semi-finalist is 11-year-old fifth grader Sarah Fernandes from Omaha, Nebraska, who is four months younger than the youngest winner ever, Nihar Janga, co-champion in 2016 at the age of 11.
Aryan Khedkar, 12, of Rochester Hills, Michigan, is one of 11 finalists
Pranav Anandh, a 14-year-old from Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, will go for the title Thursday night
Tarini Nandakumar, a 12-year-old from Round Rock, Texas, is one of the youngest spellers in the competition
14-year-old finalist Charlotte Walsh of Arlington, Va., has just completed an advanced level calculus course – in eighth grade
Spellers show great sportsmanship despite the high stakes of the competition
And then in the final spelling round of the semis, nine of the other 20 misspelled.
Since almost everyone who participates in the National Spelling Bee – even several recent champions – eventually misses a word, the default posture for spellers is nervous, restless, defensive.
Even the most prepared children know that the bell can ring at any time.
