Zaila Avant-garde becomes first African American to win Scripps spelling bee

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Zaila Avant-garde, a 14-year-old from New Orleans, Louisiana, won the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday, becoming the first African American contestant to win in 93 editions of the competition.

Zaila Avant-garde dominates at the spelling bee

She won by spelling the word “Murraya”.

The only previous Black champion was also the only international winner: Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica in 1998.

The bee, however, has still been a showcase for spellers of color over the past two decades, with kids of South Asian descent dominating the competition.

Zaila’s win breaks a streak of at least one Indian American champion every year since 2008.

She’s a history maker

Aside from being sharp in spelling, the teen holds prowess in basketball as well.

Zaila Avant-garde is a basketball prodigy who owns three Guinness world records for dribbling multiple basketballs simultaneously and hopes to one day play in the WNBA or even coach in the NBA.

Following her win, when asked what she attributes her early success in the competition to, Zaila responded, “Well, for one thing, I didn’t have any more time to succeed,” referring to the fact that it was her last year for eligibility. Turns out, not only is Zaila incredibly smart and talented, she’s also a bit of a comedian herself.

On how she felt about winning the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee, Zaila stated, “Really good. I mean, I was a bit surprised. I’ve been warned about the confetti.”

Congratulations Zalia Avant-garde