Updated July 9, 2021 at 9:36 AM ET
For the first time in the Scripps National Spelling Bee's 96-year history, an African American has taken home .
Zaila Avant-garde, 14, an eighth-grader from Harvey, La., won the prestigious competition — and $50,000. She is the competition's .
"It made me feel really proud," she the victory. "I'm really hoping lots of little brown girls all over the world and stuff are really motivated to try out spelling and stuff because it's really a fun thing to do and it's a great way to kind of connect yourself with education, which is super important."
She crushed the competition with the a genus of tropical Asiatic and Australian trees, and celebrated with a twirl onstage under confetti. But not before she got the judges to crack smiles by sneaking in a Bill Murray joke. (We won't explain the joke for you — .)
The triumph marks the return of the annual competition, which because of the pandemic. Zaila competed in 2019 but didn't make it to the finals.
National spelling champ isn't the only title to her name. Zaila holds for her basketball talents: the most in one minute with four basketballs, the most basketball bounces in 30 seconds with four basketballs, and ties the record for most basketballs dribbled at once — six — by one person.
Congratulations to our record holder Zaila Avant-garde who won the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee last night!
— Guinness World Records (@GWR)
Zaila holds three basketball dribbling records and is looking to set more - she also features in the upcoming !
Zaila was among 11 finalists who emerged from , ranging in age from 9 to 15. The competition began virtually in June with preliminaries, followed by quarterfinals and semifinals. The final round Thursday night was held in person at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Fla.
First lady Jill Biden, herself an educator, was there to witness the drama.
Good luck spellers! So glad to be here at the finals to cheer you on!💕
— Jill Biden (@FLOTUS)
Competition this year was fierce, with . Each level had an additional "word meaning" round to test vocabulary. The threat of a "spell-off" loomed over the finalists. Past years ended in ties — — but this year, a new rule said that spellers who remain at the end of the allotted time have 90 seconds to spell as many words as they can from a predetermined spell-off list of words.
But there was no need for a tiebreaker, to the chagrin of some rapt spectators: Zaila handily outspelled the competition.
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