Indian-Origin Teen Harini Logan Wins Spelling Bee 2022

Harini Logan, a 14-year-old girl from San Antonio, Texas made history on May 2, 2022, when she won the first-ever tie-breaker at the Scripps National Spelling Bee championship.

Logan took home a check for fifty thousand dollars and a trophy. The Indian-origin girl was up against a 12-year-old boy, also of Indian origin, Vikram Raju. The format of the championship tested contestants on how many words they can spell in 90 seconds. Logan stood as the winner as she spelt 21 out of 26 words correctly while her opponent could spell 15 out of 19 words correctly.

Holding the winner's trophy, Harini Logan said on stage, "I think honestly so surreal, it's my fourth time at the Bee." She added, "This is such a dream, this is my fourth bee and I'm just so overwhelmed." She said that she was a little uneasy at first then she decided to take it in stride. "I just had to take a deep breath and tell myself to go out there and do my best and whatever happens, happens, " Logan said.

The Spelling Bee championship has contestants from elementary and middle school. They spell out words that would cause even adults to fumble. The 2020 championship was cancelled due to COVID-19. The National Spelling Bee in American was launched in 2015. The championship of 2021 was held virtually with 209 contestants. It was a huge downfall in number of contestants as 2019 competition had 562 participants.

Suggested Reading: Why Are Indians So Fascinated With Spelling Bee Contests?

This year, the championship started with 234 contestants and only 12 of them could reach the finals which were held on May 2, 2022. The championship had been airing live on ESPN but this time it aired on ION and Bounce. The preliminary rounds started on Tuesday and the quarterfinals and semifinals happened on Wednesday. The host of this year's edition was LeVar Burton who is a recipient of the Emmy and Grammy awards. In a statement, Burton has said in December, "Like a lot of folks, I look forward to the competition every year and am excited to be a part of this wonderful tradition that celebrates excellence."

So far, Indian-origin children and teenagers have dominated over the National Spelling bee. 21 Indian-origin have either won the competition before Harini Logan or have shared the winner's trophy. In 2019, eight students were declared joint winners and seven of them were of Indian-origin.