By: Elaine Xu
On May 30, 2024, a 12-year-old boy from Tampa, Florida, won the national Scripps Spelling Bee. Bruhat Soma, a seventh grader, spelled the most number of words correctly in 90 seconds, 29 words in a tiebreaker. His winning word was abseil, which means to slide down a rock or cliff in a controlled way using a rope with your feet against it.
Bruhat wasn’t new to the Scripps National Spelling Bee stage. This year was his third appearance. He had previously tied for 163rd place in 2022 and came in 74th place last year.
Believe it or not, Bruhat’s coach was only 16 years old! He was Sam Evans, who coached three of the top four finishers at this year’s Spelling Bee to improve their skills.
Evans, Bruhat’s coach, is very proud of him. “I’m very happy that I could use my experience to help him, but at the end of the day, it’s all about his hard work and his dedication,” Evans said. “I’m so happy for him.”
Bruhat told NPR that he was really excited about his win. “I’ve been working really hard, so I just put a lot of time into spelling,” he told them, “I’m really happy that I won. Like, I really can’t describe it. I’m still shaking.”
Bruhat’s victory at the Scripps National Spelling Bee was celebrated with lots of things. Not only did he take home a prize of over $50,000 and educational reference materials, but he was also given a champion’s trophy. Adam Symson, the president and CEO of The E.W. Scripps Company, presented Bruhat with the trophy.