Two from Georgia in 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee

Two Georgia spellers are among 285 who will be attempting to spell harder words as they compete for a bigger cache of prizes in the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee, which gets under way Tuesday in National Harbor, MD, and continues through Thursday.

The spellers are among the best of the best, ranking among the top 0.000026 percent of the more than 11 million students who participated in local events.

They come from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Department of Defense Schools in Europe. Eleven spellers represent the Bahamas, Canada, Ghana, Jamaica, Japan and South Korea.

The spellers from Georgia are:

Lauren Whitney Walker, a sixth grader sponsored by The Augusta Chronicle. She attends Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School in Augusta.

Akshat Gautam, an eighth grader from South Forsyth Middle School in Cumming, being sponsored by the Georgia Association of Educators in Tucker.

Where, When to Watch on TV

Spellers will be on the stage for the first time on Wednesday, May 25, after Tuesday’s preliminary round.

Here’s the schedule (all times Eastern Daylight Time, all broadcasts are live):

Wednesday

• 8-11:45 a.m.: Preliminaries (ESPN3)
• 1:15-4:45 p.m: Preliminaries, announcement of finalists (ESPN3)

Thursday

• 10 a.m. -2 p.m.: Finals (ESPN2)
• 8-10 p.m.: Finals (ESPN)

Social Media

Also, follow the behind-the-scenes action on social media. The Scripps National Spelling Bee is a two-time winner of the Nielsen weekly Twitter TV ratings for the last week in May.

On the Web

More about the spelling bee, including profiles of each speller and round results and regular competition updates is found at spellingbee.com. The website also has an archive of past winners and their winning words, a sample test and other information.

Images: Lauren Whitney Walker, Akshat Gautam. (Mark Bowen/Scripps National Spelling Bee)