A role reversal for the upcoming Scripps National Spelling Bee is just fine with the Balakrishnan brothers of Hinsdale.
For three consecutive years — 2018 through 2020 — Advaith Balakrishnan helped his older brother, Atman, prepare for the competition and was, along with their parents, Atman’s biggest cheerleader when he qualified for, and competed in, the national bee outside of Washington, D.C. in 2018 and 2019. Atman qualified again in 2020, when Advaith was the runner-up in the DuPage bee, but the competition was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. Atman advanced to the final round in 2019.
Now, Atman is in high school and no longer eligible for the Scripps spelling bee. But he’s pretty excited about his brother punching his first ticket for the national competition. The Hinsdale Middle School seventh-grader did so by winning the Feb. 23 DuPage County Regional Spelling Bee.
Now, it’s Atman who will help Advaith prepare for the 2022 bee and be there to cheer him on the week of Memorial Day, with semifinal and final rounds scheduled for June 1 and June 2, respectively.
“He used to help me a lot, and now I want to do that for him,” Atman said. “It will be different seeing it from the other side, but I’m looking forward to it, and I think he can do very well.”
Advaith said he is very excited about qualifying for his first National Spelling Bee and isn’t feeling pressure because of previous family success.
Along with Atman, the boys’ father, Balu Natarajan, was the national champion in 1985.
“My brother told me to treat it like a normal bee,” Advaith said. “I may be a little nervous at first, but I think that will be gone after I spell a few words.”
Advaith said he is very content by having qualified for the national bee for the first time.
“I am content going to nationals, but it would be really cool to make the finals,” he said. Unless he wins the bee this year, Advaith will have another opportunity to qualify and compete next year, as an eighth-grader.
He won this year’s DuPage County spelling be, which lasted 12 rounds, after earlier outlasting everyone else in a 3 1/2-hour Hinsdale-Clarendon Hills Elementary District 181 competition.
Now, Advaith will spend several hours preparing for his first National Spelling Bee.
“I will try to find new words and study vocabulary patterns,” he said.
Atman said a focus on vocabulary is important in preparation because it’s recently become a bigger part of the national bee.
“He really knows his spelling,” Atman said.
Chuck Fieldman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
