12-year-old Bruhat Soma wins 96th Scripps National Spelling Bee in spell-off

OXON HILL, Md. – All Bruhat Soma does is win.

Soma entered the 96th Scripps National Spelling Bee with three smaller spelling bee victories already under his belt in 2024, and the 12-year-old from St. Petersburg, Florida, won the big prize Thursday by defeating fellow 12-year-old Faizan Zaki in a spell-off.

"My heart was pumping so fast when I realized I won," Soma said. "I had a good feeling I would win because I did pretty good, but yeah, you never know. I still couldn’t absorb the moment yet."

With organizers calling for a spell-off to determine a winner following 14 rounds over three days at the national championships, Soma spelled 29 words correctly in a 90-second span to best Zaki, who recorded 20 correct words.

For every one-hour practice session, Soma's spelling coach Sam Evans said, they would do three spell-offs.

"He’s certainly very, very good at them," Evans told USA TODAY. "I’m not surprised to see how well he did tonight."

Soma was ready for a spell-off. He was calm onstage. Every day, Soma said, his father used a program to pronounce words in 90-second sprints to emulate the spell-off.

“I really wanted all of this,” Soma said, “but you could never expect it.”

The spell-off was introduced in 2021 and was used for the first time – and before Thursday, the only time – at the 2022 competition. Harini Logan correctly spelled 22 words to take home the title that year.

The 2024 national finals began with 245 spellers from all 50 states and across the globe. Ninety-seven individuals bowed out during Tuesday’s preliminaries and 45 moved from the quarterfinals to semifinals Wednesday. Only eight – a smaller group than normal – advanced to the finals.

Soma will receive more than $50,000 cash in addition to other prizes for his victory.

Two finalists bowed out in the first round of spelling Thursday. The remaining six cruised through the subsequent vocabulary round; the Bee started having competitors choose the correct definition onstage in 2019, which typically has proved more challenging for the finalists and resulted in more eliminations.

Kirsten Santos, who finished fifth in 2022, took sixth this time around and was one letter off on “apophasis.” The top five moved into the fourth round of spelling, when Aditi Muthukumar could not nail “lillooet.”

Shrey Parikh and Ananya Prassanna then bowed out as time was expiring on the Bee’s broadcast window, prompting the start of the spell-off.

Who is Bruhat Soma? 2024 National Spelling Bee winner 'knew all of my words'

For Soma, winning the Bee has been a goal of his since third grade. He bowed out in the quarterfinals last year and decided to “go hard” in the run-up to the 2024 Bee to make up for that performance.

“I feel ecstatic,” he said onstage with confetti surrounding his feet and the Scripps Cup beside him.

Asked what the hardest word of the week he received was, he said: “I mean, to be fair, I knew all of my words. So I don’t really know.”

To help him spell out loud, Soma employs the strategy of "typing" with his left hand on an imaginary keyboard. He said he was strategic in choosing which sections to memorize – the ones he was most likely to hear at the Bee.

"His memory’s just so good and that certainly helps him with spelling," Evans said.

"I don’t know the entire dictionary," Soma said, "and I’m not even close to that."

Nonetheless, anybody can devote a few days or weeks to practicing spelling, Evans said. Soma's dedication was different.

“To be consistent throughout the whole year and to work towards a goal like he has, it’s something that makes him really special,” said Evans, a 16-year-old from Jacksonville, Florida, who will be a junior in high school in the fall. “His work ethic is really the reason why he’s standing up there holding the trophy.”

Soma also loves basketball and will undoubtedly have more time now to watch and play it.

“This year, I haven’t really been keeping up with basketball because of spelling,” he said. “Basketball is like my side passion.”

What was 2024 Spelling Bee winning word?

With the spell-off, there is no official winning word. Zaki spelled “nicuri” to force the spell-off after Soma correctly spelled “daena.”

Zaki asked for some time to take deep breaths before beginning his 90-second run.

Zaki is one of Soma's closest friends on the spelling circuit. The two shared a hug before head pronouncer Dr. Jacques Bailly read the results of the spell-off.

“I would say congrats to him. He did amazing,” Soma said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bruhat Soma wins Scripps National Spelling Bee in spell-off