A 14-year-old from Louisiana, Zaila Avant-garde, has made history as the first African-American to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee competition in the United States.
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The 2021 edition of the national competition was held on Thursday, July 8, at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, USA.
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The New Orleans indigene triumphed over her contenders to emerge as the winner, becoming the first-ever African-American contestant to win in 93 editions of the competition.
The only Black winner before was Jody-Anne Maxwell, representing Jamaica in 1998, according to edition.cnn.com.
Winning the championship
Avant-garde won after correctly spelling a type of tree called Murraya, previously navigating her way through words like “querimonious,” “solidungulate,” and “Nepeta,” to clinch the championship.
Thursday’s victory is just one in a long list of achievements for the teenager. On Instagram, where she has a following of over 14,000 people, she has shared her journey toward the national spelling bee, as well as clips of her playing basketball.
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In addition to her recent championship achievement, Avant-garde was the Guinness World Records title holder for most bounce juggles in one minute.
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The National Spelling Bee competition began with 209 spellers, ranging from 9 to 15 years old, from five countries: the US, the Bahamas, Canada, Ghana and Japan. And 11 contestants entered Thursday night’s final.