WACO, Texas — If you need to know the spelling of any word you may be able to think of, you're better off contacting Vihaan Sibal than looking in a dictionary.
The incoming seventh grader at Midway Middle School advanced to the Scripps National Spelling Bee finals on Sunday night after beating the competition. With the win, he will travel to ESPN's Wide World of Sports at Disney World in July.
“I guess getting the word correct is a reward in itself, I just feel like the lady saying that's correct is so rewarding to me,” Sibal said.
Vihaan has been spelling in competitions since elementary school. His third grade teacher at South Bosque Elementary, April McAdams, immediately recognized his talent.
"He's just an incredible kid. I remember he told me right off that he wanted to be a neurosurgeon in third grade and I believe he’ll do that all the way," McAdams said.
The two have created a special bond, in part because McAdams used to spell when she was in school.
“When I was a student, I wasn’t in this particular competition, but it was a different one and I was one of the top two spellers in the state of Texas and I got to compete in Missouri and I'll never forget that. So this has just been a special bond that we’ve had," she said.
Vihaan appeared on ESPN 2 on Sunday night. He spelled and answered every word and question correctly. He is now a little bit closer to winning the $50,000 cash prize and an appearance on a well-known late night show.
"If you win you get to go on the Jimmy Kimmel Show which, that’d be pretty cool as well,” Sibal said.
He has studied more than 2,500 root words to get to this point and said that he spends at least one or two hours a day studying. On Sunday, he said he planned on waking up at 7 a.m. and studying until the competition began at 6 p.m.
All that studying paid off as he nailed every question with a proctor by his side in his families' home office for the virtual competition.