Zaila Avant-garde (born February 9, 2007) is an American speller, basketball player, and
juggler
Juggling is a physical skill, performed by a juggler, involving the manipulation of objects for recreation, entertainment, art or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling. Juggling can be the manipulation of one object ...
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
contestant to win the bee and is the second Black winner, after
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
's
Jody-Anne Maxwell
Jody-Anne Maxwell (born 1986) is from Kingston, Jamaica and was the winner of the 1998 Scripps National Spelling Bee at the age of 12. She made history as the first non-American to win the competition.
According to ''Ebony'' magazine, Maxwell, w ...
.
Life
Avant-garde was born on February 9, 2007, in
Harvey, Louisiana
Harvey is a census-designated place (CDP) in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States. Harvey is on the south side (referred to as the "West Bank") of the Mississippi River, within the New Orleans– Metairie–Kenner metropolitan sta ...
, the daughter of Alma Heard and Jawara Spacetime. Her father chose her last name to honor
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music.
Born and raise ...
. She has cited
Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai ( ur, , , pronunciation: ; born 12 July 1997), is a Pakistani female education activist and the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Awarded when she was 17, she is the world's youngest Nobel Prize laureate, and the second P ...
,
Serena Williams
Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American inactive professional tennis player. Considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for ...
, and
Coco Gauff
Cori Dionne "Coco" Gauff (born March 13, 2004) is an American professional tennis player. She has a career-high ranking of world No. 4 in singles, reached on October 24, 2022, and world No. 1 in doubles, achieved on August 15, 2022. Gauff won h ...
as inspirations. Her basketball heroes include Stephen Curry,
James Harden
James Edward Harden Jr. (born August 26, 1989) is an American professional basketball player for the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Harden is regarded as one of the greatest scorers and shooting guards in NBA ...
Kevin Durant
Kevin Wayne Durant ( ; born September 29, 1988), also known by his initials KD, is an American professional basketball player for the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played one season of college basketball for t ...
and
Maya Moore
Maya April Moore (born June 11, 1989) is an American professional basketball player for the Minnesota Lynx, who is currently on sabbatical. Naming her their inaugural Performer of the Year in 2017, ''Sports Illustrated'' called Moore the greatest ...
.
Spelling bee
Avant-garde reached the national level in the 2019 Bee. She used a study resource called SpellPundit to learn about 12,000 words per day. Her coach was former Scripps finalist, Cole Shafer-Ray, who also coached the runner-up, Chaitra Thummala. In 2020 she won the Kaplan Online Spelling Bee, created when Scripps cancelled its Bee due to the pandemic. In the 2021 competition, she won the title by correctly spelling "
murraya
''Murraya'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the citrus family, Rutaceae. It is distributed in Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands.pandemic concerns, only the 11 finalists competed in person, in a session that took fewer than 2 hours. She is the first African-American contestant to win the competition. Before her, MacNolia Cox became the first African-American contestant to reach the final stage in the 1936 Bee.
Basketball
She is one of the top class of 2026 basketball prospects in the US. Avant-garde is the holder of three basketball
Guinness World Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
and co-holder of another. Her parents gave her a copy of the Guinness book for her eighth birthday, which triggered her ambition.
On November 14, 2019, she broke her first record, for most bounce juggles in one minute (three basketballs) at 231. That day she also set the record for most bounces of four basketballs in 30 seconds (307). On November 2, 2020, she set the record for most bounce juggles in one minute, using four basketballs (255). She is the co-holder of the record for most basketballs dribbled at one time (six) — set on Jan. 26, 2021 (equalling Joseph Odhiambo’s August 2000 record).
Juggling
Avant-garde was the silver medalist at the
International Jugglers' Association
The International Jugglers' Association or IJA is the world's oldest and largest nonprofit circus organization, and is open to members worldwide. It was founded in the United States in 1947, with the goal of providing, "an organization for jugg ...
2020 championship in the Juniors Division (18U). She is an elite unicyclist and can juggle and cycle simultaneously.