Jacques Bailly, the Scripps National Spelling Bee’s head pronouncer, plays a crucial role in guiding the Bee’s champions to success. This year, Bruhat Soma emerged as the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee victor after an intense tiebreaker with the top spellers in the competition.
To achieve greatness, Bailly emphasized the importance of “hard work.”
On Thursday night, twelve-year-old Bruhat was crowned the champion after accurately spelling 29 words in 90 seconds during a “spell-off.”
With a history of witnessing numerous champions over the Bee’s nearly 100-year existence, Bailly himself was a Scripps National Spelling Bee winner before earning a Ph.D. in ancient philosophy from Cornell University.
Scripps Spelling Bee
Florida 7th grader wins 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee after ‘spell-off’
8:20 PM, May 30, 2024
Bailly has been a familiar figure to Bee fans, expressing his joy in celebrating all participants and witnessing the Bee’s growth. In recent years, entries at the school level have reached 11 million.
“It’s like the Olympics, the records keep falling,” he remarked.
“I just love words, I love learning. I love that the mission of the Bee is to enhance the kids’ imagination,” Bailly stated.
The judges provide unwavering support to the competing kids.
The 2024 champion, Bruhat, revealed that he prepared diligently in case of a spell-off.
“I was quite nervous, but I had been practicing the spell-off for the past year, at least six months,” he shared.
Bailly emphasized that a key aspect of being a proficient speller is to “keep reading.”
“All of these words are utilized,” he explained. “Read a lot of nonfiction… and pay attention when you go to a restaurant,” Bailly added. “The menu items, they’re all Spelling Bee words.”
