After making history at the Scripps National Spelling Bee last week, Zaila Avant-garde has her sights set on the future.
The 14-year-old spelling dynamo spoke with ET on the red carpet at this year’s ESPY Awards on Saturday, outside The Rooftop at Pier 17 at the Seaport in New York City, and she opened up about the big win.
When Avant-garde ended the spelling competition with the word “murraya” on June 8, she made history as the first-ever African-American winner of the prestigious competition.
When asked if the monumental importance of that had sunk in yet, Avante-garde admitted, “It sunk in even before it ever happened.”
She went on to say she hopes to inspire more young people of color in the future, sharing, “I was hoping that it would happen because to be the first African-American speller, I’m hoping in the few years once you give kids time to train and stuff, that I can see some more top placing and winning African Americans.”
Avant-garde added that she hopes her success leads to more Latinx winners as well in the future.
For Avant-garde, being a world-class speller isn’t the only passion the young New Orleans native has driving her. She’s also an avid basketball player, and one who is already positioned to make waves in that world as well.
“I was undefeated champion with my middle school team and I was a back-to-back champion of the whole metropolitan area of New Orleans,” Avant-garde shared. “I’m considered one of the best players in the country at like 8th grade and so that’s gone pretty good and stuff.”
While Avant-garde has already established herself as a role model for so many other young people, there was one athlete at Saturday’s star-studded show that the young speller was most excited to possibly meet.
“I kind of really want to meet Naomi Osaka,” Avant-garde gushed. “My father had told me about her awhile ago, and we’ve been kind of following her [carreer]. She’s the one I’m really interested in meeting.”
