Guwahati News Desk: Zaila Avant Garde scripted history by becoming the first African American winner in the 96-year history of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
She is 14-years old and is notably known for being a basketball prodigy from Harvey, Louisiana. She holds several Guinness World Records for dribbling multiple basketballs at a time and further hopes to play some day in the WNBA.
After spelling the winning word “murraya,” a genus of tropical Asiatic and Australian trees, Zaila twirled and leaped with excitement. Also, during the bee, the only word that gave her real trouble was “nepeta,” a genus of Old World mints.
After her victory, she herself realized that with her achievement, she has successfully made a path for all those, who are dreaming of following her footsteps.
Zaila says, “I’m hoping that within the next few years, I can see a little bit of an influx of African Americans, and not many Hispanic people, either, so I’m hoping to see them there, too.”
The Scripps National Spelling Bee was very different from the previous ones. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, all the previous rounds were held virtually except the final one. Infact, it was moved from its usual location just outside Washington to an ESPN campus in Florida, where only the top 11 spellers got to compete in person.
In contrast to the hundreds of fans and former spellers who would normally pack the bee ballroom, the audience attending the 2021 bee included of the spellers’ immediate family members. However, among this year’s audience, the people got to see one high-profile fan in attendance, the first lady, Jill Biden.
Zaila has been awarded with more than $50,000 in cash and prizes.