Zaila Avant-garde, a 14-year-old from New Orleans, was named the winner of the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday night, becoming the bee’s first African American champion.

Avant-garde spelled “murraya” correctly to win the competition, after conquering words such as “retene,” “ancistroid” and “depreter” over multiple rounds. Upon her win, Avant-garde, who is also a talented basketball player with three Guinness World Records in dribbling, jumped up and down and let out an excited shout as confetti rained down on the stage.

Chaitra Thummala, a 12-year-old from San Francisco, and Bhavana Madini, a 13-year-old from New York City, came in second and third place, respectively. Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica, who won the bee in 1998, was the competition’s first Black champion.

The competition marked the bee’s return after the coronavirus pandemic forced its cancellation last year for the first time since World War II.

Signs of the pandemic were still apparent at the event, which was considerably smaller compared with past years: Only 11 finalists travelled to Lake Buena Vista, Fla., where the final rounds were held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.

Preliminary rounds, typically held in the days leading up to the spelling bee finals, had instead been held virtually over the past several weeks.

On Thursday night, the finalists — some of them still too young to be eligible for a coronavirus vaccine — wore masks when they were not at the microphone and sat in chairs spaced several feet from one another. A limited number of people, mostly family members, were in the audience.

Still, spellers said they were grateful to have an in-person bee once again, which in typical years is as much an opportunity for the spellers to form friendships and community with one another as it is a competition.