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Washington
Bruhat Soma, 12, has won the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee. Bruhat spelled 29 words correctly in the tiebreaker, beating Faizan Zaki by nine, to win the title on Thursday night. He had won three consecutive bees before taking the stage at a convention center outside Washington for the most prestigious spelling competition in the English language. He beat Faizan Zaki, 12, in a spell-off after eight finalists were whittled down to two. Bruhat will take home the championship trophy and a $50,000 prize.
Scripps said Bruhat’s winning word was “abseil,” defined as “descent in mountaineering by means of a rope looped over a projection above.” In the tiebreaker—which was used once before, when Harini Logan won in 2022—the winning word is the one that gives a speller one more correct word than their competitor.
He is the second straight champion from the Tampa Bay area, and his victory means 29 of the last 35 spelling champs have been Indian American. His parents immigrated from the southern Indian state of Telangana, a region that is well-represented among the quarter-century run of Indian American champions and contenders that began in 1999 with Nupur Lala’s victory, which was later featured in the documentary “Spellbound.”
Bruhat said he hoped to have a relaxing summer and spend more time watching and playing basketball, a passion that he set aside over the past year while preparing for the bee.
Bruhat’s victory is also a triumph for a previously unknown former speller-turned-coach: 16-year-old Sam Evans, who worked with three of the top four finishers. He also tutored Faizan and Shrey, a 12-year-old from Rancho Cucamonga, California. Both are sixth-graders and have two years of eligibility left.
Despite some surprising eliminations in the semifinals, the eight finalists included – 13-year-old Kirsten Tiffany Santos of Richmond, Texas; 14-year-old Rishabh Saha of Merced, California; and 13-year-old Aditi Muthukumar of Westminster, Colorado. The rest were in sixth or seventh grade: 12-year-old Shrey Parikh of Rancho Cucamonga, California; 12-year-old Faizan Zaki of Allen, Texas; 12-year-old YY Liang of Hartsdale, New York; and 13-year-old Ananya Prassana of Apex, North Carolina.
