13-year-old Indian-American student Faizan Zaki has won the title of America’s toughest competition ‘Scripps National Spelling Bee’. He won the title by correctly pronouncing the French word ‘eclaircissement’. Eclaircissement is a French word which means to clarify or make something understandable. Last year, Faizan was second in this competition. Then he lost to Bruhat Soma in the tiebreaker. Faizan is the fifth such participant who won the title the next year after being the runner-up. This has happened for the first time since Sean Conley in 2001. Students of primary and secondary schools participate in ‘Spelling Bee’. This is a competition related to telling the correct spelling of words. 45 lakh rupees received after winning
Faizan has received 52,500 dollars (about 45 lakh rupees) as a prize. Last year he won $25,000 (Rs 21.29 lakh), taking his total prize money to $77,500 (Rs 66.31 lakh). In the end, the competition was between three people – Faizan, 11-year-old Sarv Dharavane and 14-year-old Sarvdanya Kadam. After one more round, only Faizan and Sarvdanya remained. After this, Faizan spelled the word ‘acclamation’ correctly and won. As soon as he spelled it correctly, he clapped his fists in joy and fell on the stage. This time, Faizan spelled it correctly for 21 rounds and won. After the victory, Faizan said – When I am nervous, I tell myself, I know this word, I can do anything. Self-talk fills me with enthusiasm…performance improves. Till the fourth grade, I had no intention of winning. I thought I would go just for fun, but my passion for spelling took me to this height. Faizan, son of Arshiya and Anwar of Hyderabad, is passionate about spellings, know his success story… 6 hours of practice daily Faizan first participated in Spell Bee at the age of 7. In 2023, he was eliminated in the vocab round. This time he changed his preparation. Memorized as many words as possible from a shared list of 30 words and practiced spelling more words in 90 seconds. Speed practice was also included in the routine. In a year, he had completely dedicated his routine to Spelling Bee. He used to practice for 6 hours daily. Reading new words every day, understanding their spelling and meaning and repeating them again and again had become his habit. The result of this vigorous practice was that in the final, he could spell the winning word correctly without hesitation. Scott Remer, Sam Evans and Soham Sukhantankar, who guide Faizan, were surprised that he did not become robotic on stage. He participated in the competition with ease and enjoyment. Coach Sam Evans said, “His passion for spellings is worth watching.” Father Anwar says, he knows every corner of the dictionary. Mother Arshiya says, Faizan started reading at the age of 2. At the age of 3, he memorized the names of the countries of the world and their capitals. Arshiya says, sometimes he is in a hurry, that’s why I was afraid. But this time he handled the pressure well. Friends said – he was not worried about the award. Soma, Faizan’s friend and the one who defeated him last time, said – I don’t think he cares as much about the title as he is crazy about language and words. Even in his free time, when he is not preparing… he searches for old, obsolete words, which are unlikely to be asked. This is what makes him different from others. Faizan lost to Soma last time… Harini Logan won the competition in 2022, the fourth consecutive Indian winner. Dev Shah won in 2023 and Bruhat Soma in 2024. Faizan continued this tradition in 2025. The first runner-up was Sarvadanya Kadam and the second was Sarv Dharavane. In this difficult competition, children of Indian origin have been victorious 30 times out of the last 36 times. This victory is also special because this was the 100th edition of the Spell Bee. The ‘National Spelling Bee’ competition was started in 1925. According to Scripps, the first competition was held in Washington, DC in 1925 and only nine children participated in it. Eleven-year-old Frank Newhauser was given gold coins worth $500 as a prize. Balu Natarajan is the first Indian to win the Spelling Bee. The first Indian student named Balu Natarajan won this title in 1985. After this Rageshree Ramachandran won in 1988. So far 29 children of Indian origin have won the competition. Since Nupur Lala won in 1999, there have been only five occasions when students of Indian origin have not been able to win this trophy. With the victory of Sameer Mishra in the year 2008, Indian Americans started dominating this competition for 12 consecutive years. This streak was broken in the year 2021 when the first African American contestant Jaila Avant-Garde won this competition. The next year in 2022, Harini Logan won the competition, starting another phase of Indian-Americans winning the Spelling Bee.
