Faizan Zaki’s Redemption: Winning the Bee on Its Centennial
The 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee wasn’t just another championship—it marked the Bee’s 100th anniversary, loaded with history and fierce competition. There, on stage under the bright lights, 13-year-old Faizan Zaki from Allen, Texas, captured the spotlight. A seventh grader at C.M. Rice Middle School, he put an exclamation point on an incredible run by spelling 'éclaircissement'—a word describing the act of clearing up something obscure—perfectly in round 21, sealing his victory.
Zaki’s win didn’t come out of nowhere. He’s a Bee veteran, competing for the fourth time. But what makes his story stand out is the comeback twist. In the 2024 championship, he barely missed the crown due to a lightning-fast spell-off against Bruhat Soma, who set the bar sky-high by spelling 29 out of 30 words, clinching the trophy. For most kids, that near-miss would have stung for years. Not for Faizan. He dug in, returned to the dictionary, and became only the fifth contestant in Bee history to win it all after finishing runner-up the year before.
A Night of High Pressure and Record-Breaking Spelling
The 2025 finals were not for the faint of heart. Zaki found himself in a nail-biter, especially during a tense stretch when six competitors rattled off 28 correct words in a row. The pressure cranked even higher when he tripped up—making a minor error—but he didn’t let it shake his confidence. Instead, he shook it off, outlasted his rivals, and kept his nerves steady as he edged past runner-up Sarvadnya and third-place finisher Sarv in the closing rounds.
Things got wild in the finals, with three perfect rounds echoing the 2019 Bee, when eight spellers tied for the win. The word gauntlet was tougher than ever, yet Zaki and his peers never flinched. Even Adam Symson, CEO of Scripps, couldn’t help but gush about Zaki’s perseverance and grit, saying the win was “well-earned.” It wasn’t just about knowing hard words—it was about holding up under pressure and rebounding from mistakes.
Zaki’s dad, Zaki Anwar, summed up just how deep his son’s commitment runs, calling him “the GOAT” (greatest of all time), a kid who knows the dictionary better than most adults know their own phone contacts. That single-minded focus carried Zaki all the way, with the Dallas Sports Commission cheering him on as his sponsor. The word he won on, ‘éclaircissement,’ wasn’t just a test of spelling—it symbolized his journey: clearing up the heartbreak of 2024 with a thunderous win in 2025.