No longer a dream: Faizan Zaki wins Scripps spelling bee on fourth try

Onstage, surrounded by reporters and with confetti still clinging to his clothes, Faizan Zaki said that in all the years he has spent competing, he never imagined winning the Scripps National Spelling Bee trophy.

But that’s not exactly true.

Faizan, 13, who came to his first Bee when he was just 7 years old, said he still remembers what it felt like to watch the winner be crowned that night. How his heart jumped when the confetti exploded, how he cheered with the crowd, how he could practically feel the excitement radiating off of 2019 winner Sohum Sukhatankar when officials handed him the trophy.

The youngest competitor at the Bee that year, Faizan allowed his imagination to take over. He could see himself onstage, he said, lifting the Scripps Cup.

On Thursday night, he did it – for real.

In the 21st round of competition, Faizan sprinted through the spelling of éclaircissement. As he breathlessly recited all 15 letters, his fingers worked through the air, typing on an imaginary keyboard.

His voice trembled, his breath caught. He worried, briefly, that the judges might not have heard the final four letters. Then the confetti gun sounded.

The seventh-grader from Texas was declared the champion and handed the enormous ceramic trophy that eluded him for years.

“I don’t even know what I’m going to say. I’m just really happy,” Faizan said, visibly shaking.

Faizan, who was competing in his fourth National Spelling Bee, becomes only the fifth contestant to win the year after finishing in second place – a feat not seen at the Bee in more than 20 years. He was the runner-up last year, losing in a rapid-fire spell-off tiebreaker.

More than 240 spellers competed in this year’s Bee at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. The contest celebrated the centennial anniversary of the first national spelling bee, held in June 1925.

Faizan’s spelling journey this year nearly came to a premature end in the 18th round, when he heard the word commelina and immediately responded with, “K-A-M- …”

He stopped himself.

“Oh, OK, let me think, let me think. All the information?” Faizan said, before realizing he had already botched the first letter. “Oh, shoot.”

However, because the two other remaining competitors in that round had also missed their words, they were all reinstated, a dramatic development that elicited gasps and applause from the audience inside a ballroom at the Gaylord.

From his seat, Faizan flashed a thumbs-up to his supporters in the audience – his friends; his parents; his twin sister, Zara and his coach, Scott Remer. He knew he had another chance, Faizan later said, and he was confident he would redeem himself.

“I’ll slow it down this time,” Faizan said when he stepped up to the microphone in the 19th round.

“This word has a homonym,” head pronouncer Jacques Bailly cautioned him.

“Bro,” Faizan quipped, shaking his head.

From the stands, Faizan’s coach watched as the seventh-grader vanquished Cupar, a burgh in eastern Scotland south of Dundee, again without asking for any information.

Remer, who has been coaching Faizan for two years, usually advises against this kind of rapid-fire spelling during the Bee’s normal rounds, when each competitor is given up to 90 seconds to work out the correct spelling of a word.

Speed, Remer frequently says, doesn’t score any extra points. Thoroughly reviewing all of the information – definition, roots, all known pronunciations – is how bees are won.

“I was sort of in shock,” Remer said later with a chuckle. “I was not despairing because I knew he could still win, but it was the kind of thing where it was a, shall we say, an unforced error.”

In the next round, his only remaining opponent, Sarvadnya Kadam of California, stumbled on Uaupés, the name of a river in Colombia and Brazil.

Faizan spelled Chaldee correctly, giving him the opening to spell one more word correctly for the win.

As he was declared the victor, Faizan collapsed onstage. Arms outspread and legs akimbo, he watched the confetti fall above him.

It was only then, he said, that his victory began to feel real.

“I really hoped I would get first,” Faizan said in a post-victory interview. “But I didn’t want to say I would. The spelling bee can really be all about luck.”

Over the past two years – after being eliminated in a vocabulary quiz round in 2023 – Faizan said he dedicated himself to strengthening his vocabulary skills. After last year’s spell-off defeat, he said he added speed to his daily regimen of word drills. Faizan’s parents estimate he spent about eight hours a day practicing.

With Thursday’s victory, Faizan is the 17th champion from Texas, which has produced more National Spelling Bee champs than any other state.

Just nine spellers made it to the nationally broadcast finals Thursday out of the 243 spellers who made it to the Bee. Faizan was one of 65 with Bee experience – but just one of a small handful who had been to the national competition four times or more.

Harini Murali, 13, of Edison, New Jersey, made it to the finals alongside Faizan for what was also her fourth Bee – and her last shot at the trophy.

Harini heard the dreaded sound of the elimination bell in the 17th round. She stumbled on the word tekke, meaning a dervish monastery.

As the eighth-grader exited stage left and descended the stairs toward the family section of the auditorium, Harini’s brother – and coach – Navneeth Murali, 19, was waiting with open arms. Harini buried her face in his shoulder.

“I told her that she guessed well … and that it was a hard word,” Navneeth Murali said later.

As Harini sat down with her family, she wiped tears from her cheeks. Then the bell rang again. Three spellers were eliminated in rapid succession, leaving just three to duke it out onstage.

The Bee finals broadcast ran a tad over this year – with Faizan’s winning word coming around 10:20 p.m.

By the 18th round, Faizan was letting out yawns as his fellow spellers stepped up to the microphone. He was growing more tired by the minute, he later said, and wanted to get the contest over with.

Faizan said that’s partly why he was racing through words without pausing to ask for definitions, roots or other information that spellers typically use.

“At that point, I wasn’t nervous. I think the reason I did that was I just wanted to go back to my hotel room or go see my friends. I was really tired,” Faizan said. “But the next time, when I got my championship word, I calmed down.”

His mom, Arshia Quadri, has a different explanation.

“He does that sometimes,” Quadri said. “He just rushes in. I mean, he knows the words, he’s prepared for this moment and he’s not a guy that usually gets stressed, but I think there were some nerves, some pressure tonight after being the runner-up last year.”

Faizan insists he wasn’t nervous. In fact, he said, he might try his hand at a different kind of academic competition: the Math Olympiad.

Why not, he said. “I like math, too.”