Are you ready to S-P-E-L-L some W-O-R-D-S? Super spellers just showed off their skills at the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee. The annual contest kicked off on May 26 with 245 young spellers from across the United States. Round by round, the number of spellers got smaller and smaller. Just one wrong letter in a word and you were out of the contest! It all came down to the final two spellers on May 30 — and Bruhat Soma, age 12, won in a special spell-off tiebreaker!
Bruhat is a 7th-grader from the city of Tampa, Florida. This isn’t his first time at the spelling bee. He also competed in 2022 and 2023. In 2024, Bruhat took the stage again in National Harbor, Maryland, in hopes of taking the title. The boy overcame some tough words! He made it past “maleta,” a name for a bag, and he crushed “cricetine,” which refers to a type of found in North America.
One by one, spellers fell to tough words and took a seat. The final four spellers included Bruhat, 12-year-old Shrey Parikh, and 12-year-old Faizan Zaki. These three are close friends and are coached by the same person — Sam Evans! Unfortunately, Shrey made a mistake on the word “kanin,” a kind of boiled rice from the Philippines. As Shrey left the microphone behind, Faizan gave his friend a tight hug.
Now, only Bruhat and Faizan were left in the running. To decide on a final winner, it all came down to a lightning-round spell-off. It was only the second lightning tiebreaker round ever in the history of the competition. Each contestant had to spell as many words as they could in just 90 seconds.
Faizan spelled 20 words correctly — but Bruhat spelled 29. That made Bruhat the champion of the long-running competition!
Colorful confetti rained down from the ceiling as Bruhat held his trophy high. His family joined him onstage to celebrate together. So, how did it feel to win the competition? Bruhat has spent long hours mastering words, but he couldn’t come up with one for this magical moment. He said, “I really can’t describe it.”
Updated May 31, 2024, 5:03 P.M. (ET)
By Ryan Cramer
