Zaila Avant-garde, a 14-year-old basketball prodigy, has won the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee, becoming the first African American contestant to win in 93 editions of the prestigious competition.

Avant-garde, from New Orleans, is the first black contestant to win since Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica in 1998. The winner is also an accomplished basketball player, with several Guinness World Records to her name for dribbling multiple basketballs at a time.

Indian-Americans, who have been dominating the National Spelling Bee for years, Chaitra Thummala, a 12-year-old from San Francisco, and Bhavana Madini, 13, from New York, won the second and third place at the keenly-fought competition. It was attended by US First Lady Jill Biden.

Avant-garde correctly spelt “Murraya”— a genus of tropical Asiatic and Australian trees having pinnate leaves and flowers — to win the competition and $50,000 prize money on Thursday.

“It was the smile and twirls for us! After tying for 370th place in 2019, #Speller133 Zaila Avant-garde wins the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee. Congrats to all of our spellers. We’re proud of everyone's poise and courage in facing the dictionary. #SpellingBee #TheBeeIsBack,” Scripps National Spelling Bee tweeted after the competition, which was not held last year because of the pandemic.

The 8th-grader also became the first Louisiana resident and the first African-American to win the title in the competition’s 93-year history. Avant-garde holds three Guinness World Records for her ability to dribble multiple basketballs at a time.

She hopes to one day play in the Women’s National Basketball Association.

Avant-garde previously competed in 2019, according to her bio on the Bee’s website.

She is an avid reader who demonstrated a strong interest in words from a very early age. Beyond her love for language, she enjoys learning new things, playing basketball, listening to music and podcasts, and hanging out with her family, it said.

The National Bee is a high-pressure endurance test as much as a nerd spelling match and spellers spend months preparing for it. Jill Biden congratulated Avant-garde on her win. “Congratulations Zaila!!!,” she tweeted.

Over the past 20 years, Indian-Americans have been dominating the Spelling Bee contest. It was the first time since 2008 that at least one champion or co-champion of the Spelling Bee was not of South Asian descent.