Bruhat Soma is a young Indian-American boy who recently won the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday, find out more about him below along with his parents and origin
Bruhat edged out Faizan Zaki, who is a 6th grader from Plano ISD’s Rice Middle School, with a last round tiebreaker to win this year’s competition.
Who is Bruhat Soma winner of Scripps National Spelling Bee 2024, biography, age, parents, education, origin and school
Notably, this year’s competition marked Bruhat’s third time competing in the event after previously finishing 74th in 2023 and 163rd in 2022.
Bruhat Soma bio
Bruhat Soma is an Indian-American seventh-grade student from Florida, who recently won the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee. Soma is currently just 12-years-old and managed to win the competition after accurately spelling 29 terms during the final round tiebreaker. Bruhat is just the second straight champion hailing from the Tampa Bay area. Notably, following Soma’s victory, 29 of the last 35 spelling champions have been Indian-American.
Bruhat’s parents are originally from the southern Indian state of Telangana and immigrated to the US several years ago. His father Srinivas Soma, originally hails from Nalgonda in Telangana. According to 16-year-old tutor Sam Evans, Bruhat often astonished him with his memory power, as he could remember any word he saw. He also added that Bruhat would never get another word wrong again once he missed it.
Bruhat Soma wins the Scripps National Spelling Bee
Soma won the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee after the competition came down to a tiebreaker. As a result, the two final spellers each had to spell as many words correctly in 90 seconds. Both players had to spell words from a predefined list in the absence of the other speller.
Bruhat managed to spell 29 out of the 30 words properly in 90 seconds, defeating Faizan Zaki, who managed to correctly spell 20 words in the lightning round. The winning word for this year’s competition was “Abseil”, which is described as “descent in mountaineering by means of a rope looped over a projection above.”
Following his win on Thursday, Bruhat took home a massive cash prize worth over $50,000, along with other awards.
Organizers react to Bruhat Soma’s win
Following Bruhat;s triumphant win, the organisers of the competition stated:
Bruhat Soma rules the word! The winner of the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee! The boy with the unbelievable memory doesn’t miss a word all week and wins the Scripps Cup!”
Adam Symson, who is president and CEO of The E W Scripps Company, presented Bruhat Soma with the championship trophy and stated:
At just 12 years old, Bruhat impressed with his display of knowledge and composure.”