Shrey Parikh bounces back, battles nerves and dominates spell-off to win the National Spelling Bee

WASHINGTON (AP) — Shrey Parikh felt his body shake from nerves and doubts every time he walked to the microphone at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, the final test of a six-year competitive spelling career marked by triumph and heartbreak that he knew could end at any moment.

Then he listened to pronouncer Jacques Bailly, and his dour body language vanished as he nodded vigorously, his tell that, yes, he knew the words he was asked to spell. All of them.

“Once I get the word,” Shrey said, “I’m not really nervous anymore, because then it’s all in my control.”

Shrey arrived as a favorite and walked away as a National Spelling Bee champion Thursday night, outlasting a deep and experienced group of finalists and beating Ishaan Gupta in a lightning-round tiebreaker that looked like it was over as soon as Shrey raced through his first word.

His final tally: 32 words spelled correctly in 90 seconds, a record for the shootout-style finish that was first used in 2022.

“I was counting and I’m like, OK, this is more than 30,” said Shrey’s mother, Khyati Mehta. “And at that point, I’m like, ‘I think this is it.’”

Ishaan battled gamely, getting 25 words right during the spell-off, but he was more deliberate and hesitant from the start. The competitors stood next to each other as Scripps officials announced what everyone in a lively crowd at Constitution Hall already knew, and Shrey turned and shook Ishaan’s hand.

After Sarv Dharavane bowed out in third place for the second consecutive year, Shrey and Ishaan had only one conventional round before the buzzer for the spell-off was placed on the stage. Ishaan was escorted away — the tiebreaker is the only time spellers get the same words — and Shrey had a last bout with nerves as he stood there for five minutes while crews tried, and failed, to fix a technical glitch with the buzzer.

“That was really, like, scary for me,” he said.

The spell-off moves so fast that it’s impossible to tell which word secures the title, but Scripps later announced that “bromocriptine” — a polypeptide alkaloid that mimics the activity of dopamine — was the winner. Shrey could get a dopamine hit from the winner’s haul of $52,500 in cash, a custom trophy and a package of prizes.

He becomes the 31st of the past 37 champions with Indian heritage, a run that began with Nupur Lala’s victory in 1999.

Bouncing back from a school bee stunner

A 14-year-old from Rancho Cucamonga, California, Shrey took an unusual route to the title. He finished third in 2024, but last year he was absent. He missed his regional bee, too — because, woozy from a virus that caused a fever, he blanked on the word “calipers” and bowed out of a competition that any speller of his talent would consider child’s play: the spelling bee at Day Creek Intermediate School.

“Right now I’m probably the happiest I’ve ever been. I’m just so happy and relieved, and just such a flood of emotions,” Shrey said. “At my school bee last year, I was really dejected and just very upset. It didn’t even sink in until the next day. I had a really tough time, but I’m glad I was able to bounce back.”

After a few months off, he rededicated himself, seeking every edge he could find through coaching and study guides. In online bees against many of the same spellers he faced this week in Washington, he won again and again.

“Whenever I would quiz him, he would take notice of his missed words. He’d analyze every missed word he had, try to figure out why he missed it,” said Sohum Sukhatankar, a co-champion in 2019 who coached Shrey along with Sam Evans and Vijaya Ganesh. “All the time I coached him, he’d never miss a word twice.”

Evans, who has worked with each of the past three champions, said Shrey’s work ethic stood out.

“I’ve really never seen someone put this much effort into spelling bees, into learning everything that he possibly can,” Evans said. “Shrey is relentless.”

A high-quality final comes to an abrupt end

The spell-off will never be popular among bee purists who prefer to see the final two contestants go head-to-head for as many rounds as it takes. Because it emphasizes speed and memorization, it lacks the intrigue of watching a speller work out the intricacies of a tricky word with odd vowel patterns or sneaky double consonants.

“It’s a perversion of many values that I and many in the spelling community hold dear,” said Navneeth Murali, who competed through 2020 and now coaches. “I think everyone would have liked to see a duel, but it looks like the spell-off is here to stay. It’s something that we’ll have to adapt to.”

A stout, experienced group of nine finalists showed off their skills by going 18 for 18 at the start, breezing through the first spelling and vocabulary rounds. Aiden Meng ended that streak when he was tripped up by “catometope” to start the second spelling round.

Then the crowd gasped when the bell rung on two thought to be capable of winning it all: Oliver Halkett for “Faesulae” and Zwe Spacetime for “vaesite,” words with tricky combinations of origins and vowel sounds.

Oliver and Zwe are eighth-graders, which means they have now aged out of the competition. Sarv, a 12-year-old sixth-grader from Dunwoody, Georgia, has two years of eligibility left to try to repeat Shrey’s achievement of going from third to first. Ishaan, a 12-year-old seventh-grader from Jersey City, New Jersey, can try again next year too.

The bee’s move from a suburban convention center to Constitution Hall was a point of contention for spellers and their families because of inconveniences it caused. But Thursday’s finals had a lively atmosphere, with more intimate seating and better sight lines bringing the crowd closer to the action, and the broadcast got a reboot with ESPN’s Mina Kimes hosting alongside longtime analyst Paul Loeffler.

Though the way Scripps determined the champion will be debated — and Shrey didn’t even get the winner’s usual shower of confetti — there was no doubt he was deserving.

“When it comes to competition, he goes all the way,” said his father, Gaurav Parikh.

Or, as Evans put it: “He’s got that dog in him.”

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This story corrects the spelling of Gaurav Parikh’s first name

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Ben Nuckols has covered the Scripps National Spelling Bee since 2012. Follow his work here.