Kansas teen crowned co-champion at Scripps Spelling Bee

For Vanya Shivashankar, a gift for spelling runs in the family. Last night, the 13-year-old was crowned co-champion at the Scripps Spelling Bee. Her sister, Kavya, won the same championship in 2009. 

"We're feeling great ... just a little bit sleepy," the girls' father Mirle Shivashankar tells As it Happens guest host Tom Harrington. "This was a very tight one." 

For the second year in a row, Scripps crowned two winners. Vanya and competitor Gokul Venkatachalam, 14, "exhausted" the championship world list -- resulting in a tie. 

Vanya's final word was "scherenschnitte," which is defined as the art of paper cutting. While the word would make the average speller sweat, Shivashankar said it was no problem for his daughter.   

"She knows it from seven years ago," he says. 

Over the past few years, the competition has been dominated by youngsters of South Asian descent like Vanya. This has caused some controversy online, with critics saying these contestants aren't "real Americans." There have been other offensive comments on social media, here for example.

Shivashankar takes it in stride. He says that his children are "as American as anybody else." 

"Children are children regardless of ethnicity," he says. "All children have potential to be great and make this world a better place."  

Since Vanya is in grade eight, it was her last chance to participate in the spelling bee. 

"This was the icing on the cake," says her father.