Zaila Avant-garde 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 o ...

. She won the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee. She is the first African-American contestant to win the bee and is the second Black winner, after

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

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 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 Jazz#Post-war jazz, history of jazz and 20th-century musi ...

. She has cited

Malala Yousafzai Malala Yousafzai (; , pronunciation: ; born 12 July 1997) is a Pakistani female education activist, film and television producer, and the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate at the age of 17. She is the youngest Nobel Prize laureate in history, ...

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, and

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as inspirations. Her basketball heroes include

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, and

Maya Moore Maya April Moore (born June 11, 1989) is an American social justice advocate and former professional basketball player. Naming her their inaugural Performer of the Year in 2017, ''Sports Illustrated'' called Moore the "greatest winner in the hist ...

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 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 A pandemic ( ) is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has a sudden increase in cases and spreads across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. Widespread endemic (epi ...

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 British reference book published annually, list ...

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 January 26, 2021 (equaling 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 ju ...

2020 championship in the Juniors Division (18U). She is an elite unicyclist and can juggle and cycle simultaneously.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Avant-garde, Zalia 2007 births African-American children American children Jugglers Living people People from Harvey, Louisiana Scripps National Spelling Bee participants Spelling bee champions Unicyclists