Zaila Avant-garde Is the New Spelling Bee Champ

Zaila Avant-garde just won the National Spelling Bee. Zaila outlasted a field of 11 finalists to win the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee title and the first-place prize of $50,000 at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida. In the process, she became the first Louisiana resident and the first African-American to win the title in the competition’s 93-year history.

In addition to being the Spelling bee champion, Zaila holds three Guinness World Records for her ability to dribble multiple basketballs at a time. She hopes to one day play in the WNBA.

The National Spelling Bee competition began with 209 spellers, ranging in age from 9 to 15, from five countries: the US, the Bahamas, Canada, Ghana and Japan. And 11 contestants entered Thursday night’s final.

Zaila said she hopes to one day play basketball at Harvard before a career at NASA or as a coach in the NBA. She is also interested in pursuing a career in neuroscience or gene editing.