The first tie in 52 years
The 2014 final ran until the bee had nothing left to throw. Sujoe and Sriram Hathwar kept spelling correctly, round after round, until the championship word list was exhausted and the rules required joint winners. The bee's own account was headlined without ceremony: Ansun and Sriram, the first co-champions in 52 years.
CNN asked the obvious question, how do you spell T-I-E; NPR called the result rare and noted the online following the two had acquired during the broadcast; Scripps issued a release declaring co-champions of the 2014 competition. Sujoe's share came on 'feuilleton', a French word for the section of a newspaper given over to literature and criticism.
Second time at the microphone
This was only his second national appearance, which is unusual among champions. Most winners are veterans of four or five finals, having used the earlier exits to find the gaps in their preparation. Sujoe compressed that into a single intervening year.
His sponsorship came from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, an institutional rather than newspaper sponsor, one of the variations in the regional structure that feeds the national bee.
'I like sharing the victory'
Asked about the shared title, Sujoe said he liked sharing the victory with someone else, and that it was very rare. It is the most quoted line from the 2014 final after Hathwar's remark that the competition is against the dictionary rather than against each other.
Between them, the two sentences explain why a result American competition is not designed to produce felt, to the people involved, entirely reasonable. The bee sets a fixed standard. Two children met it.
What followed
Shared titles became briefly familiar after 2014. The following year produced another pair of co-champions, and the format was later adjusted to make outright winners more likely.
No source used here follows Sujoe into adulthood. His university, career and current whereabouts are not documented in this material, and are not guessed at. He was 13 in 2014 and would be in his mid-twenties now.
Vingt questions, huit minutes au chronomètre et un centile mesuré face à tous ceux qui l’ont passé. Sans inscription.
Passer le test de QI →Why the word list runs out
The bee's endgame depends on a finite set of championship words prepared in advance. When two finalists keep answering correctly, the list is consumed at two words a round, and the competition arrives at a point where there is nothing left to ask. The rules then provide for co-champions rather than improvising a tiebreak with unvetted words.
That design choice is a statement about what the competition believes it is doing. A tiebreak invented on the night would test luck rather than preparation, and the bee has consistently preferred to share the title than to decide it arbitrarily. The 52-year gap between ties shows how rarely two spellers are good enough at the same time to force the question, and 2014 is the year two of them were.
Watch: Ansun Sujoe on camera
| Personne | Pays | Étape | Âge / Donnée |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ansun Sujoe | États-Unis | Co-champion du Scripps National Spelling Bee 2014 à 13 ans | 13 ans |
| Arvind Mahankali | États-Unis | A gagné le Scripps National Spelling Bee 2013 à 13 ans | 13 ans |
| Kerry Close | États-Unis | A gagné le Scripps National Spelling Bee 2006 à 13 ans | 13 ans |
| Hugh Tosteson García | Porto Rico (États-Unis) | Champion du National Spelling Bee 1975 | 14 ans |
| Roy Seligman | Bahamas | Premier candidat des Bahamas à atteindre le Scripps National Spelling Bee… | — |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- Co-champion of the 2014 Scripps National Spelling Bee at 13, with 'feuilleton' (CNN, NPR, Scripps)
- The first tie at the bee in 52 years, per the competition's own account
- Sponsored by Texas Christian University; it was his second national appearance
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- No source documents his education or career after 2014
- No IQ figure or school record is published
- Round-by-round accounts of the 2014 finish differ slightly between outlets
Questions people ask about Ansun Sujoe
What word did Ansun Sujoe win with?
'Feuilleton', a French word for the literary and critical section of a newspaper, at the 2014 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Why were there two winners in 2014?
Sujoe and Sriram Hathwar kept spelling correctly until the championship word list was exhausted. The rules provide for co-champions rather than an improvised tiebreak.
When was the previous tie?
The bee's own account described Sujoe and Hathwar as the first co-champions in 52 years.
How old was Ansun Sujoe when he won?
Thirteen, and it was only his second appearance at the national finals, which is unusually few for a champion.
What did he say about sharing the title?
That he liked sharing the victory with someone else, and that it was very rare.
Where is Ansun Sujoe now?
No source used here documents his university, career or current whereabouts.
Is Ansun Sujoe on Wikipedia?
He does not have a standalone article; the 2014 result is covered in Wikipedia's article on that year's bee.
Who sponsored him?
Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, an institutional sponsor rather than the newspaper sponsorship more common at the bee.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Ansun’s story?
Which word won Ansun Sujoe a share of the 2014 title?
How long had it been since the bee's previous tie?
Who shared the 2014 title with him?
Sources
- How do you spell T-I-E? National Spelling Bee has two winners — CNN, 2014-05-30
- Ansun, Sriram: The first co-champions in 52 years — Scripps National Spelling Bee, 2014-05
- T-I-E! Sriram Hathwar, Ansun Sujoe Share Scripps National Spelling Bee Title as Co-Champions — NBC Bay Area, 2014-05
- Co-Champions Of The 2014 Scripps National Spelling Bee Named — E.W. Scripps Company, 2014-05
- National Spelling Bee: Rare Co-Champions, And A Star Online — NPR, 2014-05-30
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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