Harini Logan continued to try and learn from her near misses in online spelling contests. She was a well-respected speller in English, but she never won a national title.
She was the largest bee, and she had to endure a series of setbacks. But, somehow, she made it through.
Harini was then eliminated and then reinstated during the Scripps National Spelling Bee’s highly-debated multiple choice vocabulary round. As Scripps’ most difficult words were too challenging for her, Harini missedpelled four more times. Vikram Raju also missed four in the final stretch. Vikram was defeated by her in Thursday’s lightning-round tiebreaker.
You can call her spelling version of “The Revenant.”
Grace Walters, Grace’s longtime coach, said that Harini “has been to hell and back with spelling bee experiences.”
Eighth-grader San Antonio, Texas at 14 years old, competed in the previous fully in-person bee three year ago. She also endured the pandemic that followed to make it back. During the 90 second spell-off, she correctly spelled 22 words, beating Vikram by seven. Scripps declared that “moorhen” was the winning word. This is because it was the one that got her past Vikram. Judges declared that Harini had 21 words, but they gave her one additional after a video review. Harini was prepared for the possibility of a lightning round and found it uncomfortable.
Harini stated that she was “a bit scared” when it was introduced last year. “I go slow. This is my thing. “I didn’t know how to do in that situation.”
Harini is a crowd favorite because of her positivity and poise. She has won more than $50,000 in cash prizes and cash. Harini is the first ever Scripps champion to be re-instated during the competition. She was there before her four late stumbles.
Harini stated, “It would have been really simple for me to get discouraged, to get kind of like, Wow, why are I missing so many?'” “Really focusing on the next word, knowing that I’m still here, was just a huge relief for me.
Walters is currently coaching Harini, a former Scripps champion, fellow Texan, and Rice University student who is contemplating quitting the coaching business. Harini was also helped by Navneeth Muali who gave her one of the runner-ups at the 2020 SpellPundit Online Bee — a consolation prize that was canceled due to the pandemic.
Walters and Navneeth rushed to Harini’s mother, Priya, at the bee judges as soon as Harini walked away from the podium in the vocabulary round. This was her most crushing disappointment.
Harini stated, “My heart stopped for one second.”
Harini defined “pullulation” to mean the nesting of mating bird. Scripps stated that the correct answer was the swarming bees. Her supporters argued to the judges that she had done it right. Mary Brooks, the head judge, announced the reverse just a few minutes later.
