An Insider's Perspective on The National Championship

Blake Giddens is a judge in this month's Scripps National Spelling Bee and was the 1983champion. Then, he was a 14-year-old eighth-grade student in Texas, but now he works for an Alexandria civil engineering firm. He has remained involved in the bee in various capacities and has been a judge for more than five years. The following are excerpts from a discussion about the contest with staff writer Valerie Strauss:

Q Is there such a thing as a natural speller, or is it all about studying and reading a lot?

AThere is a genetic component, but that needs to be nurtured. Studying is by far the bigger part of it. Still, you will find that with the nationals, most of the recent champions have been repeats or had a sibling who was a previous contestant. My older sister participated twice in the finals. That was invaluable experience in terms of helping me prepare.

What is different about the bee today from when you were champ?

The amount of studying the kids put in nowadays is just phenomenal. And they study different ways. A lot of people study root words, the Latin and Greek roots, and short-cut methods to figure things out. A lot of people do a lot of rote memorization. To really be champion these days, you have to be incredibly well prepared. . . . There is no way to know every word, although there are a handful of people who almost do. . . . I wouldn't want to compete nowadays.

How much of winning is about luck, the ease of the word?

A lot of people think there is a big luck component to it, which there is. But the people who end up as the winners are the ones who devoted an enormous amount of study.

What's the payoff? Why compete?

A lot of it is just a competitive spirit, a goal you can attain, like anything else. You are trying to be the best at something. A lot of kids just love the language.

What was your winning word?

Purim, a Jewish holiday.

You didn't pronounce it the way I would. Does pronunciation have an effect during the bee?

It's a huge factor. . . . The pronouncer has an enormous burden. . . . There's an exhaustive amount of research into every word on the list and how it can be pronounced. The dictionary used as the bible of the bee [Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged] lists several pronunciations for each word, so they will typically give one and sometimes more. And if a speller asks for alternative ones, we will give all of them.

Are you a great speller now?

I would hope so!