Updated July 8
Zaila Avant-garde breezes to National Spelling Bee title
The 14-year-old from Louisiana, the national contest s first African American winner, is a basketball prodigy who hopes to play in the WNBA.
By BEN NUCKOLSAssociated Press
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Zaila Avant-garde, 14, from Harvey, Louisiana reacts after correctly spelling a word during the finals of the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee at Disney World on Thursday.
Associated Press/John Raoux
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. Whether dribbling a basketball or identifying obscure Latin or Greek roots, Zaila Avant-garde doesn’t show much stress.
The 14-year-old from Harvey, Louisiana, breezed to the championship at the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday night, becoming the first African American winner and only the second Black champion in the bee’s 96-year history.
Zaila twirled and leaped with excitement after spelling the winning word, “murraya”, a genus of tropical Asiatic and Australian trees.
Only one word gave her any real trouble – “nepeta”, a genus of old-world mints, and she jumped even higher when she got that one right than she did when she took the trophy.
Zaila during the contest. Photograph: Joe Skipper/Reuters
Unlike many serious spellers who begin competing as early as kindergarten, Zaila discovered her talent for spelling when she was 10 after her father, who watched the national spelling bee competition, quizzed her on the winning words of years past. She spelled nearly all of them correctly.
Ben Nuckols July 08, 2021 - 7:11 PM
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) â Whether dribbling a basketball or identifying obscure Latin or Greek roots, Zaila Avant-garde doesn t show much stress.
The 14-year-old from Harvey, Louisiana, breezed to the championship at the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday night, becoming the first African American winner and only the second Black champion in the bee s 96-year history.
Zaila has described spelling as a side hobby, although she routinely practiced for seven hours a day. She is a basketball prodigy who hopes to play some day in the WNBA and holds three Guinness world records for dribbling multiple balls simultaneously.
Louisiana teen Zaila Avant-garde correctly spells Murraya to win Scripps National Spelling Bee
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Zaila Avant-garde wins the Scripps National Spelling Bee (0:25)
Zaila Avant-garde spells the word Murraya to beat Chaitra Thummala and win the Scripps National Spelling Bee. (0:25)
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. 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.
Zaila knew she would be the first African American winner of the bee. 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. 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.