14-year-old Harvey girl wins Scripps National Spelling Bee

By Fritz Esker
Contributing Writer

Zaila Avant-garde, a 14-year-old Harvey resident, has become the first African-American child to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Avant-garde, Speller #133, clinched the championship in prime time on ESPN2 on Thursday, July 8, when she correctly spelled the word “murraya,” a genus of tropical Asiatic or Australian trees. She smiled, spun in a circle, and jumped up and down on stage when the judges informed her she’d won.

“I hoped to expect it (to win), I wanted to expect it, but I didn’t really expect it, so I was really happy when I got the trophy,” Avant-garde told the Tallahassee, Florida-based Black News Channel after her win.

Avant-garde is the second Black child to win, after Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica won in 1998. She is the first African American to win, the first Louisianan to win and the first homeschooler to win since 2000. She told BNC News she had been training for two years by studying 13,000 words for several hours a day. She was also the first-place winner of the 32nd local competition of the annual Scripps Spelling Bee hosted by the New Orleans (LA) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated.

Zaila Avant-Garde holds the Scripps National Spelling Bee trophy. Photo credit: Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Avant-garde has played basketball since she was 5 years old and appeared in a commercial with Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry. She is the current holder of three Guinness world records for dribbling basketballs. These records are: most balls juggled in one minute with four basketballs, most dribbles in 30 seconds with four basketballs, and most basketballs dribbled by one person simultaneously (six). Her basketball skills attracted over 12,000 followers to her Instagram account even before she won the spelling bee. ESPN.com reported that she is considered one of the top eighth-grade basketball prospects in the country.

In addition to her basketball skills, Avant-garde received a silver medal at the International Jugglers’ Association 2020 championship in the Juniors Division (18U) and is an accomplished unicyclist.

The young spelling champion told WWL TV in New Orleans she had many hopes and dreams for her future.

“I have a lot of different ideas. I might be an NBA basketball coach. I might work for NASA if I can. I also have an interest in treating diseases of both the mind and the body by studying neuroscience,” Avant-garde said.

By winning the event, Avant-garde earned over $50,000 in cash and prizes. She also earned praise from several leaders and celebrities online, including Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, who tweeted “You have made all of Louisiana P-R-O-U-D.”

Last year, the Scripps National Spelling Bee was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and much of this year’s event was held virtually, except for the final stages at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports compound in Orlando, Florida.

This article originally published in the July 12, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.