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Shrey Parikh Wins 2026 Spelling Bee, Sets Speed Record

5/29/2026

Summary

Story summary

Shrey Parikh won the 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, defeating Ishaan Gupta in a lightning-round spell-off.
He set a record by spelling 32 words in 90 seconds during the bee’s shoot-out tiebreaker.
The winning word was bromocriptine, a dopamine-mimicking polypeptide alkaloid.
Parikh received $52,500, a custom trophy and other prizes.
Veteran spellers such as Navneeth Murali criticized the speed-based spell-off as a departure from traditional duel-style finals.

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Story summary

Shrey Parikh won the 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, defeating Ishaan Gupta in a lightning-round spell-off.
He set a record by spelling 32 words in 90 seconds during the bee’s shoot-out tiebreaker.
The winning word was bromocriptine, a dopamine-mimicking polypeptide alkaloid.
Parikh received $52,500, a custom trophy and other prizes.
Veteran spellers such as Navneeth Murali criticized the speed-based spell-off as a departure from traditional duel-style finals.