On May 26, 2016, the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee was held at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Washington, D.C. Children from all over the nation traveled to Washington with the hopes of claiming the title as the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion. After four hours and 24 rounds, two winners were declared. For the third year in a row, two champions arose from the spelling bee. Jairam Hathwar, 13, from Corning, New York; and Nihar Janga, 11, from Austin, Texas, were declared the two winners of the spelling bee.

At age 11, Nihar Janga is now the youngest individual to ever win the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The 13-year-old Jairam Hathwar now joins his brother, 2014 co-champion, Sriram Hathwar, in spelling bee championship glory.

During the championship round of the spelling bee, both Jairam and Nihar misspelled two words before spelling their championship words correctly. To secure the title of 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion, Jairam correctly spelled the word "Feldenkrais" and Nihar correctly spelled the word "gesellschaft."

All of the spellers in the competition were the best of the best throughout the nation. All students were fluent in both Greek and Latin roots. This year, the bee started to derive words from harder languages, such as Maori, Mayan, Danish and Afrikaans.

For being co-champions, both winners will receive a trophy and a $45,000 cash prize.