Knew Them All, Of Course

Last night at the bee.

Ananya is the 13th consecutive Indian-American to win the bee and the 18th of the past 22 winners with Indian heritage, a run that began in 1999 with Nupur Lala’s victory, which was featured in the documentary “Spellbound.” Like most of her predecessors, she honed her craft in highly competitive national bees that are limited to Indian-Americans, the North South Foundation and the South Asian Spelling Bee, although she did not win either.

Unflappable Ananya Vinay wins National Spelling Bee

The spelling bee has gotten so good so fast in the last ten years that last night was an absolute spectacle. Ananya Vinay (12) and Rohan Rajeev (14) went TWENTY ROUNDS back and forth spelling words like durchkomponiert and cecidomyia like they were cats in hats. It was like watching Federer and Djokovic volley, except no one made any errors. Until the very end, of course.

The last three years have ended in a tie, so this year the Scripps people came ready with a tie-breaking test. I was ready for the kids to go behind a curtain and sit at school desks and take a handwritten test on live television, but it didn’t come to that. Ananya was victorious, and Rohan still won $30,000. You can bet next year will be even more amazing.