Indian-American Students Dominate 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee Finals

About 11 million spellers participated in the competition that kicked off at local levels. Of the 291 contestants that advanced to the national level, at least 75 were Indian-Americans, India West reported.

The final event on Thursday saw the victory of Ananya Vinay of Fresno, California, who bagged $40,000 in prize money after spelling 35 words flawlessly. The winning word was “marocain,” which refers to a type of silk or rayon dress fabric, International Business Times noted.

Vinay, at 12, follows a long list of Indian-American students who emerged as champions in the national competition since 2008. Her win is also the first solo victory in three years as previous ones ended in a tie.

Running up to Vinay was Rohan Rajeev of Edmond, Oklahoma, also an Indian-American. He missed after spelling “marram” incorrectly, a word that refers to a type of coarse, perennial grass.

This astonishing legacy of Indian-American spelling whizzes has already become the subject of academic study. Shalini Shankar, a sociocultural and linguistic anthropologist who heads the Asian American Studies Program at Northwestern University, so far found that the group’s success is related to involvement in a minor-league spelling circuit, a sense of community, the Indian-American love for “brain sports,” and the enthusiasm for the national spelling bee itself, Business Insider wrote.

Watch Vinay’s winning moment below: