WASHINGTON — Shrey Parikh felt his body shake with nerves every time he approached the microphone at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, the Associated Press reported. But as soon as pronouncer Jacques Bailly read a word, Parikh’s body language changed: he nodded vigorously, a clear tell that he knew it.
“Once I get the word,” Parikh said, “I’m not really nervous anymore, because then it’s all in my control.”
That calm under pressure propelled Parikh to the championship Thursday night, where he defeated Ishaan Gupta in a lightning-round tiebreaker that the AP described as record-breaking. Parikh’s win was the culmination of a six-year competitive spelling career marked by triumph and heartbreak. He entered the bee as a favorite and outlasted a deep group of finalists.
In the spell-off, which pits the last two spellers against each other in a 90-second race to correctly spell as many words as possible, Parikh raced through his first word and never gave Gupta an opening. The outcome seemed decided the moment Parikh rattled off his first correct answer, and he held his pace to claim the trophy and the title.