Scripps Spelling Bee winner is Zaila Vanguard: NPR

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Zaila Avant-garde, 14, of Harvey, Louisiana, celebrates her victory in the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee final at Disney World on Thursday.

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Zaila Avant-garde, 14, of Harvey, Louisiana, celebrates her victory in the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee final at Disney World on Thursday.

John Raoux / AP

Zaila Avant-garde, 14, won the Scripps National Spelling Bee – and $ 50,000.

She crushed the competition with the winning word, “murraya”, a genre of Asian and Australian tropical trees and celebrated with a swirl on stage under the confetti. But not before making the judges smile by slipping a Bill Murray joke. (We won’t explain the joke to you – watch the champion perform it herself)

The grade 8 student from Harvey, Louisiana 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 take place last year due to the pandemic. The avant-garde participated in the Bee 2019, but did not reach the final.

The national spelling champion is not the only title to her name. The avant-garde holds three Guinness World Records for his basketball skills: the most bounce juggle in 1 minute with four basketballs, most basketballs bounce in 30 seconds with four basketballs and equal the record for most basketballs dribbled at a time – 6 – by one person.

Avant-garde was among the 11 finalists who emerged from a group of 209 competitors, aged 9 to 15. Competition began virtually in June with preliminaries, followed by quarter-finals and semi-finals. The final round on Thursday night was held in person at Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida.

First Lady Jill Biden, herself an educator, was there to witness the drama.

Competition this year has been fierce, with new rules to raise the bar. Each level had an additional round of “word meanings” to test vocabulary. The threat of an “exit” hung over the finalists. Years gone by have ended in ties – a record eight spellings won in 2019 – but this year a new rule says spellings that remain at the end of the allotted time have 90 seconds to spell as many words as possible from from a predetermined spelling list of words.

But no need for a tiebreaker, to the chagrin of some enthusiastic spectators: the avant-garde has far outstripped the competition.

No matter their final ranking, these kids don’t disappoint with their intelligence, their courage and, of course, their facial expressions. Here’s a look at the highlights:

Chaitra Thummala, 12, of Frisco, Texas, finished second in this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee.

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Ashrita Gandhari, 14, from Ashburn, Va.

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Dhroov Bharatia, 12, of Plano, Texas, reacts after spelling a word correctly in the final.

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Roy Seligman, 12, of Nassau, Bahamas, reaches the final.

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Avani Joshi, 13, of Roscoe, Ill., Makes the final.

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