{"id":701733,"date":"2026-05-29T07:50:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T07:50:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/701733\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T07:50:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T07:50:31","slug":"california-teenager-wins-scripps-national-spelling-bee-with-bromocriptine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/701733\/","title":{"rendered":"California teenager wins Scripps National Spelling Bee with ‘bromocriptine’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Correctly spelling 32 obscure words in just a minute and a half has won 14-year-old Shrey Parikh this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee.<\/p>\n

It was the Californian’s third time as a finalist in the US-wide spelling competition, where he beat out 247 other contestants at Constitution Hall in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n

The eighth-grader from Rancho Cucamonga defeated Ishaan Gupta, a 12-year-old seventh-grader from New Jersey, who correctly spelled 25 words from the same list.<\/p>\n

Both advanced to the dramatic finale in the televised competition after they survived 18 rounds without misspelling a word on the final day.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Ishaan Gupta (left) and Shrey Parikh were the two finalists in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. (AP: Jose Luis Magana)<\/p>\n

The elimination-style final spell-off was introduced in 2021 after the 2019 competition ended with eight co-champions who kept spelling words correctly.<\/p>\n

“Right now, I’m probably the happiest I’ve ever been. I’m just so happy and relieved, and just such a flood of emotions,” Mr Parikh said.<\/p>\n

In addition to the Scripps Cup trophy, adorned with flowers and bumble bees, the winner takes home a $US50,000 ($70,500) prize.<\/p>\n

Event organisers say Mr Parikh’s winning word was “bromocriptine,” which is “a polypeptide alkaloid that is a derivative of ergot and mimics the activity of dopamine,” according to the US dictionary Merriam-Webster.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Shrey Parikh’s score of 32 words spelt correctly was a record for the lightning-round tiebreaker. (AP: Jose Luis Magana)<\/p>\n

He advanced to the spell-off by nailing “Philepitta”, a genus of Madagascan birds, while Mr Gupta matched him in the 18th round with “Erteb\u00f8lle”, described as of or belonging to an Early Neolithic or Late Mesolithic culture in the Baltic region.<\/p>\n

The Scripps National Spelling Bee is one of the most well-known academic competitions in the US, tracing its origins to 1925, when the Louisville Courier-Journal newspaper invited students to participate in a national spelling contest.<\/p>\n

Over the decades, it has evolved into a highly competitive event that draws hundreds of participants from across the US and around the world.<\/p>\n

Contestants qualify through a series of local and regional bees, spelling complex and obscure words, sometimes piecing together previously unknown words after learning the language of origin, pronunciation and definition.<\/p>\n

The almost 250 finalists, all aged 15 or younger, competed in the televised national competition over three days at the DAR Constitution Hall in Washington.<\/p>\n

Spelling bee’s triumphs and tense moments, in pictures\"A<\/p>\n

Louis Avetis, 13, of Orlando, Florida. (AP: Jose Luis Magana)<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sarah Fernandes, 14, of Omaha, Nebraska. (AP: Allison Robbert)<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Logan Bailey, 12, of Houston, Texas. (AP: Allison Robbert)<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sarv Dharavane, 12, from Dunwoody, Georgia. (AP: Allison Robbert)<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Keona-Dannette Osae-Twum, 13, of Waldwick, New Jersey. (AP: Jose Luis Magana)<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Josh Verma, 11, of Germantown, Tennessee. (AP: Jose Luis Magana)<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sanil Thorat, 10, of Shreveport, Louisiana. (AP: Allison Robbert)<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Minna Danziger, 13, of Suttons Bay, Michigan. (AP: Jose Luis Magana)<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Anay Mahesh, 13, of Orlando, Florida. (AP: Allison Robbert)<\/p>\n

Wires<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Correctly spelling 32 obscure words in just a minute and a half has won 14-year-old Shrey Parikh this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,22279,22103,341743,341744,340779,85,1055,3601,25667],"class_list":["post-701733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-competition","tag-good-news","tag-scripps-national-spelling-bee","tag-shrey-parikh","tag-spelling","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-washington","tag-winner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=701733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}