Zaila Avant-garde has become the first African American to win the 90-year-old Scripps National Spelling Bee by correctly spelling "Murraya", a genus of plants, staying cool after a near miss with a botanical word in a previous round.
Televised live on ESPN on Thursday, complete with play-by-play commentary and interviews with the participants, the US competition's finals returned after being cancelled last year because of the coronavirus pandemic. It was once again held before a live audience at the Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando.
Avant-garde, from New Orleans, is the first black contestant to win since Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica in 1998. The winner is also an accomplished basketball player, with several Guinness World Records to her name for dribbling multiple basketballs at a time.
Chaitra Thummala, 12, from Texas competes during the finals of the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee. Source: AAP
Avant-garde claimed the $US50,000 ($A67,000) top prize after appearing relaxed and bantering with the judges and moderators, despite her struggle with "Nepeta", a word for another plant genus.
Pausing at the unstressed sound in the middle of word, she collected herself,started again, and nailed the second "e", jumping for joy on stage when told she was correct.
Chaitra Thummala, 12, of San Francisco, came in second after misspelling "nerolioil", but still takes home $US25,000.
Bhavana Madini, 13, of New York finished third with the $US15,000 prize, after being eliminated on "athanor", a type of furnace.
This year's competition added rules meant to avoid multiple co-winners, such as the eight who shared the title in the "octo-champs" contest in 2019.
