Faizan Zaki, a 13-year-old from Allen, Texas, won the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday, after he ended up as runner-up in last year's competition.
Faizan outlasted eight other accomplished spellers to win the title on Thursday night.
In the final minutes, the competition came down to Faizan, Sarv Dharavane, 11, and 14-year-old Sarvadnya Kadam.
After another round, the last two standing were Sarvadnya and Faizan.
Faizan then won the competition by correctly spelling the word "eclaircissement."
He pumped his fists and collapsed to the stage after saying the final letters of the word.
A riveting conclusion
Two rounds earlier, Sarvadnya Kadam and Sarv Dharavane misspelled their words, clearing a path for Faizan, but he too misspelled his word, after which the other two finalists returned to the stage.
Upon his return to the microphone, Sarv chimed in: "This is surprising!"
But Sarv misspelled again, followed in the next round by Sarvadnya, and Faizan stayed just calm enough to ensure his competitors wouldn't get back to the microphone.
Faizan lost to Bruhat Soma last year in a tiebreaker known as a "spell-off."
He became only the fifth runner-up to come back and win and the first since Sean Conley in 2001.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee is an annual competition in the US where students from across the country compete to correctly spell a series of increasingly difficult words.
