Rise of a ‘new sports dynasty’

Akash Vukoti entered his first Spelling Bee contest when he was 2 years old. He was still in diapers. He won his first competition when he was 4. And became the youngest speller at the nationals in 2016, at the princely age of six.

Now 8, Vukoti will take another crack at the title next week at an oceanside resort complex outside Washington DC that hosts the national Scripps Spelling Bee.

Vukoti is one of the four stars of “Breaking the Bee,” a documentary that follows four IndianAmerican spellers and their families to chronicle the unrelenting, viselike grip the tiny community of 4 million people, less than 1% of the US population, has on an American institution.

It also tries to explain it. The children are brilliant no doubt, but it’s also sheer hard work, by them, and their their families — each family, incidentally, has a secret sauce — and by the community.

And, finally, it gives the immigrant community a platform to unabashedly flaunt their Americanness: “Wow, Indians are on ESPN,” says Sanjay Gupta, a celebrityIndianAmericanphysician interviewed on the film. The bee finals have been aired live by the sports channel, an institution itself, for more than two decades now.

Since 2008, every telecast has ended with an Indian -American — or more, co-winners in recent years — holding up the trophy as confetti shimmered down around them.

WASHINGTON: