This year, 273 students from around the world qualified for the national round. That included nine students from Maryland, 13 from Virginia and one from the District. By the second round of the live finals, only four spellers remained. By the third and final round, Anamika Veeramani stood alone.
Bill O'Leary-Washington Post
The demands of television have added jolting pauses for video vignettes of the contestants and a series of two-minute commercial breaks into the flow of the bee. Joanna Ye, of Carlisle, Pa., gets a good luck hug from her sister Julia, 6, during a break.
Bill O'Leary-Washington Post
The national bee is a celebration of something so arguably nerdy that it has become cool. For several years, ESPN has broadcast the early rounds of competition with a level of dedication and seriousness usually reserved for football, and ABC has put the final round on its prime-time broadcast.
Bill O'Leary-Washington Post
Andrew Grose, 13, right, seeks relief from the tension during a break in the competition with a hug from mom Jennifer Grose, of Sheboygan, Wis. To winnow the rising quality of contestants, the words are getting more difficult, said Tim King, a Scripps vice president for corporate communication.
Bill O'Leary-Washington Post
Laura Newcombe, 11, of Toronto, Canada, receives consolation from her mother, Zeu Ming Wong after missing a word in the finals. Even after being eliminated in preliminary rounds this week, many students sat in the audience with notebooks, trying to write down the words correctly before the contestants spelled them.
Bill O'Leary-Washington Post
Laura Newcombe talks with Dr. Jacques Bailly, center, the 1980 national champion of the spelling bee and now the "pronouncer."
Bill O'Leary-Washington Post
Lanson T. Tang, 14, of Potomac (in orange shirt) made it to the finals. He was stumped by the word "leishmanic," an adjective that refers to the characteristics of a parasitic disease.
Bill O'Leary-Washington Post
Elizabeth Platz, 13, of Shelbina, Mo., smiles as she receives a make-up touch up during a break in the action. Some parents grew angry Friday when the semifinals were paused in the middle of a round -- before all the students had a chance to spell -- because organizers worried if they kept going, they wouldn't have enough spellers for the prime-time show.
Bill O'Leary-Washington Post
June 4
Rahul R. Malayappan, 10, of Danbury, Conn., left, and Brian A. King, 13, of Colorado Springs, Colo., stretch at the start of the semifinals of the 2010 Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington.
Jacquelyn Martin-AP
June 4
Hannah Evans, 14, of Albuquerque, N.M., smiles upon spelling her first word, "arcanum," correctly.
Jacquelyn Martin-AP
June 4
Anvita Mishra, 13, of Lincoln, Calif., crosses her fingers for luck while competing in the semifinals of the spelling bee. She has been keeping her fingers crossed constantly in this round, and spelled her first word, "diaphanie," correctly.
Jacquelyn Martin-AP
June 4
Anju Mishra, left, embraces her daughter, Anvita, of Lincoln, Calif., who kisses her mother on the forehead, after she spelled her word correctly in the semifinals.
Jacquelyn Martin-AP
June 3
Matthew Karas, 12, of Michigan chooses his next letter carefully during the preliminary oral round. Scores will narrow the field from 273 to no more than 50 semifinalists.
Ricky Carioti-The Washington Post
June 3
Vanya Shivashankar of Kansas successfully spelled "euthanasia." Vanya, 8, is this year's youngest competitor, and sister Kavya was last year's bee winner.
Ricky Carioti-The Washington Post
June 3
Suzanne Lynne Greenwood, 14, and Vothom Son Lu, 11, both of New Jersey, watch as others take their turns onstage.
Ricky Carioti-The Washington Post
June 3
Jacky Kun Qiao, 13, of China uses the time-tested method of tracing letters on the back of his name placard before sounding out his answer.
Ricky Carioti-The Washington Post
June 3
Jacky Kun Qiao exults in a correct response.
Ricky Carioti-The Washington Post
June 3
An amusing sentence from the bee's pronouncer evokes a laugh from Dakota Daniel Jones, 13, of Nevada.
Ricky Carioti-The Washington Post
June 3
Vaidya Govindarajan, 12, of Florida tackles his word. Spellers worked through such challenges as zaibatsu, vibrissae and biauriculate.
Ricky Carioti-The Washington Post
June 3
Allison Black, 14, of Alabama concentrates on her bee word.
Ricky Carioti-The Washington Post
June 3
Mehgan R. Abdel-Moneim, 13, of Michigan takes her turn. Forty-seven percent of this year's participants are girls.
Ricky Carioti-The Washington Post
June 3
Esther Park, 14, of Arkansas focuses.
This year's bee features the most U.S.-based spellers ever. One contestant is back for a fourth year.
Ricky Carioti-The Washington Post
June 3
Ian Wendt, 12, of Idaho is already tired on the first day of oral competition. Scores from two spoken rounds will be combined with a written test to determine who advances to the semifinals.
Ricky Carioti-The Washington Post
June 3
Waiting for nearly 300 others tests the patience of New Jersey's Vothom Son Lu, 11.
Ricky Carioti-The Washington Post
June 3
Leena Fazil Khan, 10, is among 13 representatives from Michigan.
Ricky Carioti-The Washington Post
June 3
Emma Grover Finch, 12, of California misspelled a word in the orals, but she could still be in the semifinals based on her written exam score.
Ricky Carioti-The Washington Post
June 3
Noah D. Gershenson, 10, of Michigan isn't just a word guy: He also competed at the state level of the National Geographic Bee.
Ricky Carioti-The Washington Post
June 3
Nathan Wakefield, 14, is captain of the academic team at Tishomingo Middle School in Oklahoma.
Ricky Carioti-The Washington Post
June 3
Grace Remmer, 11, of Florida is among the 273 hopefuls. They range in age from 8 to 15.
Jacquelyn Martin-AP
June 3
Tommy Foster, 11, of Florida awaits his turn at the microphone. No more than 50 spellers will advance to Friday's semifinals.
Jacquelyn Martin-AP
June 3
Vothom Son Lu, 11, of New Jersey listens to others onstage. Competitors are from the United States as well as the Bahamas, Canada, China, Ghana, Jamaica, New Zealand and South Korea.
Jacquelyn Martin-AP
June 3
Jacky Kun Qiao, 13, of China had a lively reaction after correctly spelling his word. "The kids are just fun to watch," pronouncer Jacques Bailly said.
Jacquelyn Martin-AP
Gallery Credits:
Photo Editors Stephen Cook, Dee Swann
Text Editor Doris N. Truong
Producer Stephen Cook
