Ananya Vinay overcomes previous disappointments to win national title

Local Fresno 7th grader, Ananya Vinay, overcame finishing 172nd in the Scripps National Spelling Bee last year, to win it, June 1, 2017.

Vinay won the California State Spelling Bee three years in a row and competed in Washington D.C.’s National Finals the last two years. She attributes her love for the sport to her mom.

“My mom would always read to me when I was little so I always liked to read,” Vinay said. “I competed in my first spelling bee for fun, and I liked it, but I couldn’t compete in a higher competition. It was really just an activity for me until fourth grade when I could finally compete in my town’s competition. I ended up going to state, and that’s how it all got started.”

Around 11 million first through eighth graders compete in school spelling bees nationwide, but only the top 300 receive an invitation to the National Finals. Vinay was one of 16 Californians to participate in the event. 

ESPN televises the two-day contest. Paul Loeffler, a former Bee contestant, and Fresno Christian parent who commentates for ESPN, also attended the event as a child.

“The difference between now and when I competed is really night and day,” Loeffler said. “When I was in it, the internet didn’t exist; the National Spelling Bee wasn’t on national television, and I think the winner got $5,000. Now it’s $40,000, and there are millions of people watching around the world. The kids all know each other because of the connectivity of the internet and social media. It’s really a different world now.”

Another recent change made to the Bee was the addition of a tie-breaker test. All finalists took a 24-question quiz, which nearly came into play as Vinay and Rohan Rajeev, ‘21, battled it out for almost 45 minutes.

Vinay’s first place finish this year differed from where she finished last year. She incorrectly spelled “multivalent” and finished 172nd in 2016. She said that her early elimination last year pushed her to win this year.

“My mistake in 2016 was that I had gotten confused by a definition and stopped thinking straight,” Vinay said. “I wanted to make sure that didn’t happen again because if I had thought more I could have gotten it right. I changed my study methods to type up words instead of looking at lists. I tried to expose myself to a lot of languages so I had a bigger word base. I was determined to do better the next year. Working on all those things made me more experienced and gave me a better way of staying calm on stage than in 2016.”

Spellers who win the National Spelling Bee are disqualified from entering again. However, many former winners come to cheer on the current spellers. Vanya Shivashankar, ‘19, was one of the “spell-ebrities” who attended. Shivashankar earned a co-champion title in 2015 and said that spelling changed her life.

“It’s really a good experience,” Shivashankar said. “I got a bunch of lessons, not just spelling-wise, but I learned how to set a goal and work towards it and I learned how to focus on things. I’ll definitely use that my whole life.”

In addition to learning life skills, Vinay earned many other prizes, including an appearance on The Jimmy Kimmel Show, tickets to a Golden State Warriors game and a day named after her in Fresno. She said that one of her favorite prizes will be some free time.

“Over the last two years,” Vinay said. “I’ve learned a lot about so many different things, including science and math and a variety of subjects. I’ll miss spelling, but it’s good to have a lot more free time than before.”

Loeffler first announced the Spelling Bee in 2006, but it is the first time he witnessed someone from the Central Valley win. He says his favorite part, like every year, is watching the hard work of spellers from across the nation pay off.

“My favorite part was watching the kids demonstrate their incredible abilities,” Loeffler said. “You see the dedication, the focus, all the time they’ve put in, how much they’ve invested in this dream of winning. And then you watch their performance under pressure because that’s big pressure when the lights are on, there’s no margin for error, and everybody is watching.”

“And to see so many of them,” Loeffler continued, “especially Ananya and Rohan, go back and forth and be so aggressive. It was a great competition.”

The Scripps National Spelling Bee is open to first through eighth graders who win their school’s spelling bee and a register regional bee.

For information on Vinay’s “victory lap,” the Fresno Bee wrote a series of articles this summer. Special thanks to Scripps National Spelling Bee for the Top 5 photo.

For more articles read, English, Drama teacher creates unique finals. For more featured articles, read The origins of Labor Day.

Bryce Foshee can be reached via email at Bryce Foshee and via Twitter at @brycer_f.