Bruhat Soma, a 12-year-old from Florida, triumphed in the 96th Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday night. He outlasted seven other finalists and secured victory by defeating his final competitor in the competition’s second-ever spell-off. During this intense round, Bruhat correctly spelled 29 words, while his rival, 12-year-old Faizan Zaki from Texas, managed to spell 20 words. After Bruhat was declared the champion, the two competitors shared a congratulatory handshake.
The spell-off is a special round that comes into play when the competition reaches a certain duration and multiple contestants remain. According to the Bee’s rules, the contestant who spells the most words correctly in 90 seconds is declared the winner. Reflecting on his win, Bruhat told CNN’s John Berman and Kate Bolduan that although his heart raced when the spell-off was announced, his six months of preparation for such an event made him confident he had a chance to win. Ultimately, his successful spelling of the word “abseil” crowned him the champion.
Bruhat described the 90 seconds of the spell-off as “kind of exhilarating.” He expressed his excitement and pride in achieving his goal, having dedicated the past year to winning the competition. Still clutching his trophy on stage, he shared his emotions, admitting that he was shaking and finding it hard to describe his feelings.
To reach this pinnacle, Bruhat correctly spelled words such as habitude, indumentum, dehnstufe, Okvik, and Hoofddorp, and he also accurately defined “sine qua non.” His distinctive method of pantomiming typing the letters while spelling on stage, which he developed from practicing on spelling websites, was noted by many viewers.
Bruhat’s rigorous preparation involved 10 hours of practice on weekends and six hours on weekdays. His dedication paid off, earning him a $50,000 cash prize among other rewards. This year, more than 240 contestants participated in the Spelling Bee, with eight making it to the finals held on Thursday night at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.
The finals began following preliminary, quarterfinal, and semifinal rounds earlier in the week. This year’s competition featured a brief video message from First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, a former school spelling bee competitor herself, who expressed her support for the participants.
Alongside Bruhat and Faizan, the finalists included 12-year-old YY Liang from New York, 13-year-old Aditi Muthukumar from Colorado, 12-year-old Shrey Parikh from California, 13-year-old Ananya Rao Prassanna from North Carolina, 14-year-old Rishabh Saha from California, and 13-year-old Kirsten Tiffany Santos from Texas. Rishabh and YY were eliminated in the first round of the finals after misspelling desmotrope and immanent, respectively. The remaining six contestants cleared the vocabulary round, but Kirsten Tiffany was later eliminated after misspelling apophasis. Aditi fell to the word Lillooet, Shrey was knocked out by kanin, and Ananya Rao misspelled murrina.
This victory marked Bruhat’s third time competing in the Spelling Bee. He previously tied for 163rd place in 2022 and 74th place in 2023. Besides spelling, he enjoys playing badminton, Ping-Pong, and basketball, with LeBron James being his favorite player.
The competition attracted spellers aged 15 or under from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Department of Defense Schools in Europe, as well as from the Bahamas, Canada, and Ghana. The spell-off was last used in 2022 when Harini Logan won by spelling 22 words in 90 seconds. While there have been many co-winners in the past, including an eight-way tie in 2019, the spell-off aims to decisively determine a single champion. According to the 2024 rulebook, the spell-off can be activated under various scenarios to ensure a clear winner by the end of the live broadcast.
All finalists received monetary prizes and other perks, but the champion took home $50,000, the official trophy, a reference library from Merriam-Webster, and reference works from Encyclopedia Britannica. Bruhat was among the 65 contestants who returned from previous competitions, demonstrating the high level of dedication and passion among the participants.
