Spelling Bee celebrates 100 years since first contest; Indian-origin spellers dominate finals
Oxon Hill (Maryland): The best young spellers in the English language are competing at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. Indian Americans have dominated the competition for a quarter-century. Since 1999, 29 of 35 winners have been Indian American, including seven of the eight co-champs in 2019.
The first bee was held in 1925, when the Louisville Courier-Journal invited other newspapers to host spelling bees and send their champions to Washington. The bee is now held just outside the nation's capital, at a convention centre on the banks of the Potomac River. It started Tuesday and concludes Thursday night.
This is the 97th bee; it was cancelled from 1943 to 1945 because of World War II and again in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year's champion will be the 110th, because the bee ended in a two-way tie several times and an eight-way tie in 2019.
Cash prizes
The winner receives a custom trophy and more than $50,000 in cash and prizes. Here are the prize payouts:
1st place - $50,000
2nd place - $25,000
3rd place - $15,000
4th place - $10,000
5th place - $5,000
6th place - $2,500
7th place - $2,000
The winner also gets a $2,500 cash prize and a reference library from Merriam-Webster.
Finalists
- Aishwarya Kallakuri, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Concord, North Carolina, and winner of the SpellPundit National Spelling Bee.
- Harini Murali, a 13-year-old eighth-grader from Edison, New Jersey, a finalist last year and the younger sister of Navneeth Murali, who would have been a top contender in the 2020 bee had it not been canceled because of COVID-19.
- Esha Marupudi, a 13-year-old seventh-grader from Chandler, Arizona, who is competing at the bee for the first time.
- Oliver Halkett, a 13-year-old seventh-grader from Los Angeles and a two-time bee participant.
- Sarvadnya Kadam, a three-time speller and a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Visalia, California.
- Sarv Dharavane, an 11-year-old from Dunwoody, Georgia, who made the semifinals last year as a fourth-grader.
- Brian Liu, a 13-year-old eighth-grader from Great Neck, New York, who was a semifinalist two years ago but didn't make it to the bee in 2024.
- Akshaj Somisetty, a 13-year-old eighth-grader from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and a two-time speller who leaped from quarterfinalist to finalist.
AP