Texas teen Faizan Zaki overcomes shocking, self-inflicted flub to win Scripps National Spelling Bee

Faizan Zaki’s enthusiasm for spelling nearly got the better of him.Ultimately, his joyful approach made him the Scripps National Spelling Bee champion.The favorite entering the bee after his runner-up finish last year — during which he never misspelled a word in a conventional spelling round, only to lose a lightning-round tiebreaker that he didn’t practice for — the shaggy-haired Faizan wore the burden of expectations lightly, sauntering to the microphone in a black hoodie and spelling his words with casual glee.Throughout Thursday night’s finals, the 13-year-old from Allen, Texas, looked like a champion in waiting.

Then he nearly threw it away.But even a shocking moment of overconfidence couldn’t prevent him from seizing the title of best speller in the English language.With the bee down to three spellers, Sarvadnya Kadam and Sarv Dharavane missed their words back-to-back, putting Faizan two words away from victory.The first was “commelina,” but instead of asking the requisite questions — definition, language of origin — to make sure he knew it, Faizan let his showman’s instincts take over.“K-A-M,” he said, then stopped himself.“OK, let me do this.

Oh, shoot!”“Just ring the bell,” he told head judge Mary Brooks, who obliged.“So now you know what happens,” Brooks said, and the other two spellers returned to the stage.Later, standing next to the trophy with confetti at his feet, Faizan said: “I’m definitely going to be having nightmares about that tonight.”Even pronouncer Jacques Bailly tried to slow Faizan down before his winning word, “eclaircissement,” but Faizan didn’t ask a single question before spelling it correctly, and he pumped his fists and collapsed to the stage after saying the final letter.The bee celebrated its 100th anniversary this year, and Faizan may be the first champion who’s remembered more for a word he got wrong than one he got right.“I think he cared too much about his aura,” said B...