OXON HILL, Md. — The Scripps National Spelling Bee is ready to crown a champion, with 11 finalists gathering Thursday evening in a conference middle ballroom outdoors Washington to display their mastery of Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged dictionary.

The bee has undergone many modifications because of an eight-way tie in 2019 and the COVID-19 pandemic, which wiped it out a 12 months later. But one factor that hasn’t modified is the ability and dedication of the highest spellers within the English language.

The typical workload for a top-level speller: 3-4 hours of learning every weekday, and extra on the weekends. And but they nonetheless discover time to excel in different disciplines - 14-year-old finalist Charlotte Walsh of Arlington, Virginia, simply accomplished an Advanced Placement calculus course - as an eighth-grader.

The bee started in 1925 and is open to college students by way of the eighth grade. Spellers qualify by successful regional bees across the nation. There have been 229 youngsters onstage at first of this 12 months’s competitors.

Most of this 12 months’s finalists are Indian American, persevering with a pattern that has lasted for 20 years. Twenty-one of the previous 23 champions have had South Asian heritage.

Thursday’s winner will obtain greater than $50,000 in money and prizes. Champions usually go on a media tour and make a collection of appearances all year long because the face of the bee. Many find yourself returning to the bee in different roles, together with as a part of Scripps’ phrase choice panel.

Vanya Shivashankar, a 2015 co-champion, has been concerned within the bee telecast ever since and this 12 months was promoted to the function of grasp of ceremonies - a process that final 12 months fell to “Star Trek” actor and literacy advocate LeVar Burton.

The bee had co-champions from 2014 to 2016 earlier than the “octo-champs” of 2019, however ties are inconceivable beneath the present guidelines. If the competition reaches the 1-hour, 55-minute mark with out a winner, the remaining spellers will compete in a lightning-round tiebreaker.

Surya Kapu, a 14-year-old from South Jordan, Utah, is the one returning finalist. He completed tied for fifth final 12 months.

The youngest remaining semifinalist is 11-year-old fifth-grader Sarah Fernandes of Omaha, Nebraska, who's 4 months youthful than the youngest winner on file, Nihar Janga, a co-champion in 2016 at age 11.

Shradha Rachamreddy, a 13-year-old from San Jose, California, is available in with arguably the strongest spelling resume, having gained a number of extremely aggressive on-line and in-person bees that spellers use to prep for Scripps. She’s one in every of 4 finalists from California, together with 14-year-old Vikrant Chintanaboina, additionally from San Jose; 12-year-old Dhruv Subramanian of San Ramon; and 14-year-old Arth Dalsania of Camarillo.

The different finalists:

- Dev Shah, a 14-year-old from Largo, Florida.

- Aryan Khedkar, a 12-year-old from Rochester Hills, Michigan.

- Pranav Anandh, a 14-year-old from Glen Mills, Pennsylvania.

- Tarini Nandakumar, a 12-year-old from Round Rock, Texas.

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Ben Nuckols has lined the Scripps National Spelling Bee since 2012. Follow him at https://twitter.com/APBenNuckols

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