National Spelling Bee Ends In A Tie, See The Final Words Here

Gokul Venkatachalam and Vanya Shivashankar are the new co-champions of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. It was the second tie in a row for the contest, which is unprecedented.

The AP reports that the National Spelling Bee didn’t have a tie for 52 years until last year, now it has happened twice in a row. One of the champions broke another record with her win.

Vanya, a 13-year-old from Olathe, Kansas, is the first winner to be the sibling of a former champion. In 2009, her sister Kavya won.

Her rival champion Gokul, a 14-year-old from Chesterfield, Missouri, finished last year in third place. It was the last chance to win for both Kavya and Vanya, since they were in the 8th grade – the last year students are eligible.

Nevertheless, to take home the trophy they had to pass through a gauntlet of words most people have never heard of.

According to ESPN, Vanya’s final word was “scherenschnitte,” which is a word from German defined as the art of cutting paper into decorative designs. The National Spelling Bee officials gave Gokul his last word, “nunatak,” which is a hill or mountain completely surrounded by glacial ice, and told him that if he spelled it correctly he’d become co-champion.

Gokul, who had remained self-assured throughout the competition, nailed the word. He explained afterwards that once he heard the word, he knew “Me and Vanya were going to be the champions.”

Other champion spelling bee words included bouquetière, caudillismo, scytale, thamakau, Bruxellois and pyrrhuloxia – in case you want to do some Googling later.

Vanya told ESPN after winning that she did it for her deceased grandmother.

“This is a dream come true. I can’t believe I’m up here. I’ve wanted this for such a long time. I’m dedicating this to my grandma, because she passed away in October of 2013, and all she really wanted was her grandkids to do so well, and I hope I make her happy with this.”

Gokul, who is an avid NBA and Lebron James fan, said before the competition, “hopefully after losing a couple times and experiencing failure, I hope to win like LeBron,”

The two spelling bee champions will go home with $37,000 in cash and prizes – and each will receive their own trophy to take home.

According to CNN, Executive Director Paige Kimble predicted last year that they wouldn’t see another tie for 50 more years.

Now that it only took one more year, she’s starting to think this might become the new normal in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

“I think it’s time to consider that the bee may be entering a new era where the level of competition is so intense that we need to entertain this as a possibility every year.”

Apparently, the skill of spelling is still alive and well at the National Spelling Bee, despite spell check.

[Image Credit: Getty Images]