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John Raoux / AP
Fourteen-year-old Zaila Avant-garde has won the Scripps National Spelling Bee and $50,000.
She crushed the competition with the winning word, murraya, a genus of tropical Asiatic and Australian trees and celebrated with a twirl onstage under the confetti. But not before she got the judges to crack smiles by sneaking in a Bill Murray joke. (We won t explain the joke for you watch the champ execute it herself)
The 8th-grader from Harvey, La., is the first African American winner in the Bee s 96-year history, and the competition s second Black champion.
The triumph marks the return of the annual competition, which did not happen last year because of the pandemic. Avant-garde competed in the 2019 Bee, but didn t make it to the finals.
John Raoux/AP
toggle caption John Raoux/AP
Zaila Avant-garde, 14, from Harvey, La., celebrates winning the finals of the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee at Disney World on Thursday. John Raoux/AP
For the first time in the Scripps National Spelling Bee s 96-year history, an African American has taken home the top prize.
Fourteen-year-old Zaila Avant-garde, an 8th-grader from Harvey, La., won the prestigious competition and $50,000. She is the competition s second Black champion. It made me feel really proud, she said after clinching the victory. I m really hoping lots of little Brown girls all over the world and stuff are really motivated to try out spelling and stuff because it s really a fun thing to do and it s a great way to kind of connect yourself with education which is super important.