Shrey Parikh has been crowned the champion of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, triumphing in a dramatic lightning-round tiebreaker that saw him spell a record-breaking 32 words in just 90 seconds.
The victory marks the culmination of a six-year competitive spelling career for Parikh, who overcame intense nerves to claim the coveted title.
Despite admitting to body-shaking nerves before each appearance at the microphone, Parikh’s demeanor transformed once pronouncer Jacques Bailly uttered the word.
“Once I get the word,” Shrey said, “I’m not really nervous anymore, because then it’s all in my control.”
His confident nods were a clear signal he knew the answers.
Parikh, who arrived as a favorite, outlasted a strong field of finalists, ultimately defeating Ishaan Gupta in the rapid-fire spell-off. While Parikh raced through his words, Gupta battled gamely, correctly spelling 25 words, but appeared more deliberate.
Shrey’s mother, Khyati Mehta, recalled the tension: “I was counting and I’m like, OK, this is more than 30. And at that point, I’m like, ‘I think this is it.’”
The two competitors shook hands as the result was announced.
The final showdown followed Sarv Dharavane’s exit in third place for the second consecutive year. Before the tiebreaker could begin, a technical glitch with the buzzer caused a five-minute delay, leaving Parikh alone on stage.
“That was really, like, scary for me,” he confessed.
Although the spell-off moves too quickly to identify the exact winning word in real-time, Scripps later confirmed “bromocriptine” – a polypeptide alkaloid – as the decisive entry.
Parikh’s triumph comes with a substantial prize package, including $52,500 in cash, a custom trophy, and additional awards.
His win also continues a remarkable trend, making him the 31st champion of Indian heritage in the past 37 years, a lineage that began with Nupur Lala’s victory in 1999.
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.”
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.
