The countdown to the 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee is on.

This year, the Bee will welcome 234 spellers from May 31 to June 2 for the national rounds in National Harbor, Maryland.

Spellers will represent four countries in addition to the U.S., including the Bahamas, Canada, Germany and Ghana.

There will be spellers from other U.S. territories, including the Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico.

The youngest speller this year is just 7 years old.

The spelling competition will be fully in-person for the first time since 2020. In 2021, it was held mostly in a virtual format with the finals taking place in person.

The champion this year will receive a $50,000 cash prize.

Preliminaries will begin May 31, quarterfinals are scheduled for June 1 and finals will take place June 2.

Actor and educator LeVar Burton will serve as the host during the semifinal and final rounds.

AKRON, Ohio — Last week, 14-year-old Zaila Avant-garde became the first African-American winner of the National Spelling Bee, taking home the trophy after correctly spelling the word "murraya." The moment was exciting and groundbreaking, but also stirred up the history behind the journey leading up to the moment that should always be remembered.

Back in 1936, just 11 years after the National Spelling Bee was inaugurated, 13-year-old MacNolia Cox from Akron was a spelling prodigy with an IQ through the roof.

Cox had qualified for the National Spelling Bee held in Washington, D.C., but her journey to get there wasn't easy, nor was her time competing in the bee.

With segregation and Jim Crow laws still very much in full swing, Cox and another Black child, 15-year-old Elizabeth Kenny from New Jersey, were forced to travel to the National Spelling Bee in the "colored" car of the train, were unable to stay at the hotel with the other contestants, had to use the back door of the arena to get into the bee and were forced to sit at a card table once inside.

Still, despite the hardships she faced, Cox went on to become the first African-American finalist in the Top Five and was on her way to victory, having extensively studied the 100,000-word list given to every speller in the bee.

Cox overcame the obstacles in her way but could not get past the hatred in the hearts of the judges, who were all white southerners and had seen enough from the young Black girl from Akron.

A. Van Jordan, author of "M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A," said that what happened next was a despicable move from the bee's judges.

"They pulled a word that was not on that list, and you can't make this up: the word was nemesis," Van Jordan said.

The word had just moved into popular vernacular and was at the time most defined as the Greek goddess of retribution—a proper noun that should have been an ineligible word—but the judges argued that the word could be used as a common noun.

Cox misspelled the unapproved word and was eliminated from the bee.

The young girl, with dreams of becoming a doctor, was limited by the era she lived in. She became a domestic for a doctor and at the age of 53 died from cancer.

Cox faced numerous hardships in her life, one which took place on the grand stage of the 1936 National Spelling Bee. But her hardships now serve as a reminder of where we once where and where we've come to be—with Zaila being crowned the Spelling Bee champion, bringing Cox's trailblazing full-circle all these years later.

"When you see young people, you really have to encourage them. Something that may happen at that stage of their life can be indelible and can change the course of their life," Van Jordan said.

Now indelible is the moment Zaila provided with her win and how it prompts us all to remember the moments that came before—and the people, like Cox, who paved the way. And for the newest National Spelling Bee champ, she said MacNolia Cox was in her thoughts the night she won it all.

This story was originally published by Rob Powers and Camryn Justice at WEWS.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. —

Whether dribbling a basketball or identifying obscure Latin or Greek roots, Zaila Avant-garde doesn't show much stress. Now she has become the first African American winner in the 96-year history of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The 14-year-old from Harvey, Louisiana, breezed to the championship on Thursday night. The only previous Black winner was also the only champ from outside the United States: Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica in 1998.

Zaila said she was fully aware that people were watching her and dreaming of following in her footsteps.

"I'm hoping that within the next few years, I can see a little bit of an influx of African Americans, and not many Hispanic people, either, so I'm hoping to see them there, too," she said.

Zaila has described spelling as a side hobby, although she routinely practiced for seven hours a day. She is a basketball prodigy who hopes to play some day in the WNBA and holds three Guinness world records for dribbling multiple balls simultaneously.

Zaila twirled and leaped with excitement after spelling the winning word "murraya," a genus of tropical Asiatic and Australian trees.

Only one word gave her any real trouble, "nepeta," a genus of Old World mints, and she jumped even higher when she got that one right than she did when she took the trophy.

"I've always struggled with that word. I've heard it a lot of times. I don't know, there's just some words, for a speller, I just get them and I can't get them right," she said. "I even knew it was a genus of plants. I know what you are and I can't get you."

This year's bee was different from any that came before because of the coronavirus pandemic, which led to the cancellation of last year's bee. It was moved from its usual location just outside Washington to an ESPN campus in Florida, and only the top 11 spellers competed in person. Previous rounds were held virtually.

Only spellers' immediate families were allowed to attend, in contrast to the hundreds of fans and former spellers who normally pack the bee ballroom. There was, however, one high-profile fan in attendance: first lady Jill Biden.

The competition itself also was different. In 2019, Scripps' word list was no match for the deep and talented field, and the bee ended in an eight-way tie.

This year, five of the 11 finalists were gone after the first round, and Zaila emerged as the champion in just under two hours. Had the bee reached the two-hour mark, a new lightning-round tiebreaker would have determined the winner.

Zaila will take home more than $50,000 in cash and prizes. She used the $10,000 prize from an online bee she won last year to pay for lessons with her coach, 2015 Scripps runner-up Cole Shafer-Ray, who charges $130 an hour — part of a burgeoning industry of private tutors who work with most of the top spellers.

Chaitra Thummala, a 12-year-old from Frisco, Texas — another student of Shafer-Ray — was runner-up. She has two years of eligibility remaining and instantly becomes one of next year's favorites.

The only previous Black winner of the bee was Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica in 1998. Zaila also breaks a streak dating back to 2008 during which at least one champion or co-champion was of South Asian descent.

ORLANDO, Fla. — There’s a buzz in the air because the Scripps National Spelling Bee is back, and a new champion will be named Thursday night.

Eleven spellers will compete for the title during the finals, which will be hosted in-person at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Florida.

You can watch the excitement from home on ESPN2 starting at 8 p.m. ET.

You may notice a few changes to this year’s spelling bee.

The last bee held in 2019 ended with a record eight winners as champions. To prevent a repeat of that, organizers have created some new rules. They’ve added vocabulary questions to the competition and a tie-breaker spell-off.

During the finals, the bee will have the option of activating the spell-off if needed. It would be activated in the closing minutes of the competition if a champion has not yet been declared in a traditional, one-person, one-word round.

Here are the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee finalists:

Roy Seligman, 12, from Nassau, The Bahamas
Bhavana Madini, 13, from New York
Sreethan Gajula, 14, from Charlotte, North Carolina
Ashrita Gandhari, 14, from Leesburg, Virginia
Avani Joshi, 13, from Loves Park, Illinois
Zaila Avant-garde, 14, from New Orleans
Vivinsha Veduru, 10, from Fort Worth, Texas
Dhroov Bharatia, 12, from Dallas
Vihaan Sibal, 12, from Waco, Texas
Akshainie Kamma, 13, from Austin, Texas
Chaitra Thummala, 12, from San Francisco

The 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee champion will receive a $50,000 cash prize, a commemorative medal and the Scripps Cup, a $2,500 cash prize and reference library from the Bee’s dictionary partner Merriam-Webster, as well as $400 of reference works, including a 1768 Encyclopædia Britannica Replica set and a three-year membership to Britannica Online Premium.

This year’s bee will also have a special guest. First lady Jill Biden will attend the finals. Immediately before the event, the White House says Dr. Biden will meet with the spellers and their families to congratulate them on their tremendous academic achievements.