Scripps National Spelling Bee: Winning It All Will Be the Ultimate Stress Test

The early favorites have been eliminated, and only the strongest still remain.

Of the nine contestants still standing in the 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee, the one who takes home the top honors might not be the best speller of the bunch. He or she just might be the one who best handles the stress that comes with performing in a nationally-televised, pressure-cooker of a contest against some of the smartest kids on the planet.

What once was a field of 278 has now been narrowed down to nine, and those nine will take the stage once again at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday night for the Scripps finals held in National Harbor, Md.

Among those who faltered on Thursday morning were many of the early favorites: six-year-old phenom Lori Anne Madison, who bowed out on Wednesday after spelling the word "ingluvies" with an "e," as well as 10-year-old Vanya Shivashankar, who had a perfect score through Wednesday but faltered on "pejerrey" in the sixth round.

Not only do those left standing have to have an obscenely deep familiarity with the English language—they also have to hold strong when they watch some of the front-runners falter right in front of them. Particularly important will be the Thursday afternoon stretch in between the semifinals and the finals, in which the nine remaining contestants will have little else to do besides read the dictionary and try not to drive themselves crazy with the stress.

Is the stress too much for kids who are in eighth grade or younger to handle? Probably.

Spelling isn't like sports, where athletes are sometimes better off just doing rather than thinking. In sports, when you turn off your mind, you perform better. In the world's biggest spelling bee, all you can do is think—and all that pressure can get the best of kids who aren't equipped to handle it.

For most of these kids—who have spent months and even years leading up to this event trouncing the competition in regional spelling bees—losing isn't something they've ever considered because they've never done it before. And when they do lose, it's shattering.

All of which is a testament to Jordan Hoffman, Lena Greenberg, Gifton Wright and the rest of this year's finalists, who will be competing for $30,000 in cash, a trophy, a $2,500 savings bond, a $5,000 scholarship, $2,600 in Encyclopedia Britannica reference materials and an online language course.

It's a lot for a young mind to comprehend.

Then again, most young minds can't spell "toxophilite," so maybe these kids are better off than we think.