Highlights:
• Harini has won the Scripps National Spelling Bee 2022
• Defeating Vikram Raju in the first-ever lightning-round tiebreaker in the bee’s history
The Scripps National Spelling Bee 2022 was won by Harini Logan, an Indian-American teen. In the first-ever lightning-round tiebreaker, the 14-year-old from San Antonio, Texas, won the spelling competition.
Correctly spelled 22 words
According to the Scripps National Spelling Bee, the eighth-grader correctly spelled 22 words in the historic spell-off. Her winning word was ‘moorhen,’ which is a noun that refers to the female red grouse.
Between rounds 13 and 18, the final two competitors, Vikram Raju and Harini Logan, had difficulty spelling their words. At that point, the judges decided to hold the first spell-off – 90 seconds to correctly spell as many words as possible, with the winner taking home the Bee. Logan won the 2022 championship by correctly spelling 22 words compared to Raju’s 15.
Logan correctly spelled a few words, including ‘sereh,’ a fragrant grass native to southern Asia, ‘charadriiform,’ a bird order that includes shorebirds, auks, and gulls, and ‘ditalini,’ short elbow-shaped macaroni.
Logan inspired by Kamala Harris, the first Indian-origin US Vice-President
According to Scripps National Spelling Bee 2022, Logan takes inspiration from Kamala Harris, the first Indian-origin US Vice-President, and believes that it takes a village to raise a speller.
