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12-Year-Old Ananya Vinay Wins National Spelling Bee

The 13th consecutive Indian-American to take the crown.

Ananya Vinay on Friday evening won the 90th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee. The 12-year-old from Fresno, California, seemed nearly unstoppable throughout the competition, coolly breezing through every word handed to her, and ultimately winning on the spelling of “marocain,” a type of dress fabric of ribbed crepe. “I knew them all,” Ananya said after her victory over her top competitor, 14-year-old Rohan Rajeev. Vinay’s victory marks the first non-tie for the Bee since 2013, and she becomes the 13th-consecutive Indian American to win the competition and the 18th of the previous 22 winners to have Indian heritage.