The 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee kicks off Tuesday, and hundreds of kids from around the globe will compete for the championship trophy. 12-year-old Sarv Dharavane from Georgia is one of a handful of returning finalists, and he says he’s ready to hit that stage again.
In 2025, Sarv was just 11 years old when he earned a third place finish in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. He’s been studying ever since — hoping to improve on his performance.
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Dharavane spends hours every day with the Merriam Webster Unabridged dictionary online — going letter by letter, looking for new or difficult words and then making himself a custom, master spreadsheet of words to study.
After spending nearly a year looking for repeating letters or unusual words, he’s compiled a list of over 3,700 words. He says reading is the key to success for any speller.
“The more you read, the more you learn, and the more you learn, the more you can spell. And if you keep reading, it won’t just help you spell, it’ll help you do better in life,” he said.
Like most of the word wizards who qualify for the national spelling bee, he has other hobbies too, including teaching himself piano, playing basketball and folding origami.
After winning the Georgia state spelling bee, this will be Sarv’s third year in a row earning a trip to Bee Week. And as a sixth grader, he still has two more years of eligibility. He says knowing he has the chance to try again helps reduce some of the pressure when he’s at the mic.
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So what’s his plan if he wins the Bee and doesn’t need to spend hours studying spelling anymore?
“I’m going to focus more on my extracurriculars. I’m probably going to play more sports than I have before,” he said.
Dharavane will join 246 other spellers in Washington, D.C. — each one of them hoping to win their battle with the dictionary.
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