International Linguistics Olympiad

The logo of the International Linguistics Olympiad

The International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL) is one of the International Science Olympiads for secondary school students. Its abbreviation IOL is deliberately chosen not to correspond to the name of the organization in any particular language, and member organizations are free to choose for themselves how to designate the competition in their own language. This olympiad furthers the fields of mathematical, theoretical, and descriptive linguistics.

Format

The setup differs from most of the other Science Olympiads, in that the olympiad contains both individual and team contests. The individual contest consists of 5 problems, covering the main fields of theoretical, mathematical and applied linguistics – phonetics, morphology, semantics, syntax, sociolinguistics, etc. – which must be solved in six hours.

The team contest has consisted of one extremely difficult and time-consuming problem since the 2nd IOL. Teams, which generally consist of four students, are given three to four hours to solve this problem.

Like nearly all International Science Olympiads, its problems are translated and completed in several languages and as such must be written free of any native language constraints. However, unlike other olympiads, the translations are provided by the multilingual Problem Committee, a body of experts independent of the delegates' team leaders. Because competitors could gain some advantage if they are familiar with one or more of the language groups which are the subject of some of the assignments, problems are increasingly based on some of the world's lesser known languages. Fortunately, with more than 6,000 languages spoken world-wide (not including so-called dead languages) there are plenty to choose from. The committee has a policy of not using artificial or fictional languages for its problems. The presence of an independent Problem Committee and Jury means that team leaders do not have to be experts in the field (though most are): they can (and often do) work closely with their teams, providing last-minute coaching throughout the week of the competition.

In any case, the most helpful ability is analytic and deductive thinking, as all solutions must include clear reasoning and justification.

History

The concept of self-sufficient linguistics problems was formulated in the 1960s, in the intellectual environment of the recently-founded Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics (OTiPL) of the Moscow State University. Moscow linguists in this environment were specially interested in understanding and modelling the formal and mathematical aspects of the natural languages; they were hatching things like the meaning-text theory, the Moscow School of Comparative Linguistics and the beginnings of what later became computational linguistics.

In 1963, Andrey Zaliznyak published a book called Linguistics problems (Лингвистические задачи), explaining in the introduction:

Specially crafted problems can serve as an important tool for teaching the fundamental principles and methods of linguistics. In existing collections, the material used for problems is often drawn from the facts of students' native language or the most well-known European languages. While such tasks are undoubtedly beneficial, they often suffer from the disadvantage that it is challenging to separate the linguistic task itself (which requires nothing but understanding the basic linguistic principles) from testing specific knowledge of the language under consideration. The best (though not the only) way to get rid of that second element, which doesn't directly relate to general linguistics, is to create tasks based on material from languages unfamiliar to the students. Of course, it is more challenging to craft such problems, since all the essential specific facts necessary for solving the task must somehow be presented in the problem data. However, in this case, students only need an understanding of the properties of language in general.

Following the publication, the then student Alfred Zhurinsky proposed to the mathematics professor Vladimir Uspensky the creation of a high-school olympiad using such problems.

Poster of the First Traditional Olympiad on Linguistics, Moscow 1965

Thus, in 1965, the first edition of the Moscow's Traditional Olympiad on Linguistics and Mathematics was held, with an Organizing Committee composed by Uspensky (president), Igor Miloslavsky, Alexander Kibrik and Anna Polivanova. The Problem Committee consisted of Zhurinsky (the author of most of the problems) and Zaliznyak, plus Boris Gorodetsky (president), Alexandra Raskina and Victor Raskin. The Moscow Olympiad was held regularly until 1982 and resumed again in 1988, being still held nowadays.

In the next decades, olympiads using the format of self-sufficient linguistics problems started to appear in different regions:

• In 1984, professor Ruslan Mitkov founded the Bulgarian Olympiad of Mathematical Linguistics, open for high-school students of the whole Bulgaria. In this olympiad, each school could participate with 4 students, thus inspiring the format of the future IOL. From 2001, the Bulgarian Olympiad also started to feature a team competition.
• From 1988 to 2000, professor Thomas E. Payne, from the University of Oregon organized a program with linguistics problems for high-school students in the city of Eugene, Oregon, United States. The format was very similar to the Moscow Olympiad, with which he had contact in 1986, when visiting the OTiPL in Moscow. From 2001 to 2006, the competition evolved into an online format, the Linguistics Challenge, which stimulated local linguistics competitions in different U.S. cities. This movement culminated, in 2007, with the creation of the North American Computational Linguistics Open Competition.
• In 1995, a group of professors from the Saint Petersburg State University started to organize the Traditional Olympiad of Linguistics and Mathematics of Saint Petersburg, following a format very similar to that of the Moscow Olympiad. Decades later, in the 2010s, the olympiads of Moscow and Saint Petersburg merged to form a Russian National Linguistics Olympiad.
• In 2001, a group connected to the Leiden University, including Ruslan Mitkov, the founder of the Bulgarian Olympiad, and two other former participants of the Moscow Olympiad (Alexander Lubotsky participated from 1973 to 1976; Leonid Kulikov participated from 1981 to 1988), founded a Linguistics Olympiad for the Netherlands.

After the foundation of the Bulgarian olympiad, teams of winners of the Moscow Linguistic Olympiad successfully competed in Bulgaria and vice versa, demonstrating good potential for international cooperation in the field. With the multiplication of initiatives, the organizers of the different olympiads decided to organize, in 2003, the First International Olympiad in Theoretical, Mathematical, and Applied Linguistics, with six participating countries:

• Russia, with one team from the Moscow Olympiad and another from the Saint Petersburg Olympiad;
• Bulgaria, also with two teams, both from the Bulgarian Olympiad;
• Netherlands, with a team selected from its newly formed olympiad;
• Estonia, with a team from the olympiad organized in the same year by Renate Pajusalu and other professors from Tartu University;
• Latvia, with a team of students from Riga's Secondary School No 40, the former school of Alexander Berdichevsky, then a master student at the OTiPL.
• Czech Republic, with a guest team.

Contests, year by year

IOL 2003

The first edition of IOL then was realized from September 6 to 12, 2003, in the mountain resort Borovetz, Bulgaria, chaired by Alexander Kibrik from Moscow State University (MSU) and with the participation of six countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Netherlands, and Russia. The first International Jury was composed of four people: Ivan Derzhanski (president) (Institute for Mathematics and Informatics of Bulgarian Academy of Sciences), Alexander Berdichevsky (MSU), Boris Iomdin (Russian Language Institute) and Elena Muravenko (Department for Russian Language, Russian State University for the Humanities). The five problems at the individual contest concerned Jacob Linzbach's "Transcendental algebra" writing system, Egyptian Arabic (Afroasiatic), Basque (Isolate), Adyghe (Northwest Caucasian), and French (Indo-European). The team contest consisted of three problems, on Tocharian (Indo-European), the use of subscripts as indices, and on performative verbs.

Logo of the Second International Linguistics Olympiad (2004), depicting a map of Moscow where each neighborhood (rayon) is marked with a letter in some writing system and the acronym МОЛ-2 (the Cyrillic acronym for 2nd IOL) follows the moskva river.

IOL 2004

The 2nd IOL was held from August 2 to 6, 2004, in the Russian State University for the Humanities (RSUH), in Moscow, Russia. Chaired by Vladimir Alpatov, it gathered seven countries, with the first participation of Poland and Serbia and Montenegro. The Problem Committee was chaired by Elena Muravenko; in addition to Berdichevsky, Derzhanski, and Iomdin, it also included Ksenia Gilyarova and Maria Rubinstein. The five problems at the individual contest were in Kayapo, Latin, English, Lakhota and Chuvash. The team problem was in Armenian.

IOL 2005

The 3rd IOL was held from August 8 to 12, 2005, in Leiden, Netherlands. Organized by a Local Committee composed by Alexander Lubotsky, Michiel de Vaan, Alwin Kloekhorst, Jesca Zweijtzer and Saskia Tiethoff, it had the participation of 13 teams from 9 countries, Finland and Romania for their first time. The Problem Committee was chaired by Ksenia Gilyarova. The five problems at the individual contest were in Tzotzil, Lango, Mansi, Yoruba and Lithuanian. The team problem was in Figuig.

IOL 2006

The 4th IOL was held from August 1 to 6, 2006, at the University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia. Chaired by Renate Pajusalu, it received also 13 teams from 9 countries, with Lithuania sending a team for the first time. The Problem Committee was chaired by Alexander Berdichevsky. The five problems at the individual contest were in Lakhota (Siouan) syntax, Catalan (Romanic) plural forms, Khmer (Austroasiatic) script, Udihe (Tungusic) possessives and Ngoni (Bantu) syntax. The team problem was in American Sign Language.

IOL 2007

The 5th IOL was held from July 31 to August 4, 2007, at the Hotel Gelios, Saint Petersburg, Russia. Chaired by Stanislav Gurevich, it received 15 teams from 9 countries; Spain, Sweden and USA came for the first time. In that year, it was decided that each country can send one or two teams, consisting of four students each, with the first team's costs fully covered by the host country. Also, the host country could send a third team. The Problem Committee was chaired by Dmitry Gerasimov. The five problems at the individual contest were in Braille, Movima (Isolate), Georgian (Kartvelian), Ndom (Trans-New Guinea), and correspondences between Turkish and Tatar (Turkic). The team problem was in Hawaiian (Polynesian) and focused on genealogical terms.

IOL 2008

The 6th IOL was held from August 4 to 9, 2008, at the Sunny Beach Resort, Sunny Beach, Bulgaria. Chaired by Iliana Raeva, it gathered 16 teams from 11 countries, including the first time for Germany, Slovenia and South Korea. The Problem Committee was chaired by Ivan Derzhanski. The five individual problems were in Micmac (Algonquian), Old Norse (North Germanic) poetry (specifically, drottkvætt), Drehu and Cemuhî correspondences (Oceanic), Copainalá Zoque (Mixe-Zoquean), and Inuktitut (Eskimo-Aleut). The team problem was about correspondences between Mandarin and Cantonese (Sinitic) using the fanqie system.

IOL 2009

The 7th IOL was held from July 26 to 31, 2009, at the University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland. Chaired by Michał Śliwiński, it received 23 teams from 17 countries, with Australia, United Kingdom, India and Ireland sending teams for the first time. The Problem Committee was chaired by Todor Tchervenkov (University of Lyon, France). The subject matter of the five individual problems covered: numerals in the Sulka language (Isolate), Maninka and Bamana (Mande) languages in the N'Ko and Latin scripts, traditional Burmese (Sino-Tibetan) names and their relation with dates of birth, stress position in Old Indic (Indo-Aryan) and the relation between grammar and morphology in classical Nahuatl (Uto-Aztecan). The team problem was in Vietnamese (Austroasiatic).

IOL 2010

The 8th IOL was held from July 19 to 24, 2010, at Östra Real Hostel, Stockholm, Sweden. Chaired by Hedvig Skigård, it received 26 teams from 18 countries, including first time for Norway and Singapore. The Problem Committee was chaired by Alexander Piperski. The individual contest consisted of five problems covering: relations between various verb forms in Budukh (Northeast Caucasian), the Drehu (Oceanic) counting system, Blissymbolics, mRNA coding, and the connection between Sursilvan and Engadine dialects in Romansh (Western Romance). The team problem involved translating extracts from a monolingual Mongolian (Mongolic) dictionary.

IOL 2011

The 9th IOL was held from July 25 to 30, 2011, at the Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA - the first time outside of Europe. Chaired by Lori Levin, it received 27 teams from 19 countries, including Brazil, Canada, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam for the first time. The Problem Committee was chaired by Adam Hesterberg. The problems of the individual contest required reasoning about Faroese (Germanic) orthography, Menominee (Algic) morphology, Vai (Mande) syntax, Nahuatl (Uto-Aztecan) semantics and the structure of the barcode language EAN-13. The team contest involved the rules and structure of Sanskrit (Indo-Aryan) poetry.

IOL 2012

The 10th IOL was held from July 29 to August 4, 2012, at the University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia. Chaired by Mirko Vaupotic, it received 34 teams from 26 countries, first time for China, Greece, Hungary, Israel and Japan. The Problem Committee was chaired by Ivan Derzhanski. The five problems at the individual contest were in Dyirbal (Pama-Nyungan) syntax, Umbu-Ungu (Trans-New Guinea) numbers, Basque (Isolate) pronouns, Teop (Austronesian) syntax, and Rotuman (Austronesian) semantics. The team problem involved recognizing country names in Lao language (Tai-Kadai).

IOL 2013

The 11th IOL was held from July 22 to 26, 2013, at the Manchester Grammar School, Manchester, UK. Chaired by Neil Sheldon, it received 35 teams from 26 countries, including first time teams from Isle of Man, Taiwan and Turkey. The Problem Committee was chaired by Stanislav Gurevich. The five problems at the individual contest were about Yidiny (Pama-Nyungan) morphology, Tundra Yukaghir (Yukhagir) semantics, Pirahã (Mura) phonology, Muna (Austronesian) syntax, and telepathy based on English. The team problem involved translating Martin Seymour-Smith's list of the 100 most influential books from Georgian (Kartvelian) written in the 9th century Nuskhuri script.

IOL 2014

The 12th IOL was held from July 21 to 25, 2014, at the Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing, China – for the first time on the Asian continent. Chaired by Jiang Yuqin, it received 39 teams from 28 countries, with Pakistan and Ukraine sending teams for the first time. The Problem Committee was chaired by Tae Hun Lee. The five problems at the individual contest were about Benabena (Trans-New Guinea) morphology, Kiowa (Tanoan) morphophonology, Tangut (Tibeto-Burman) kinship, Engenni (Niger-Congo) syntax, and Gbaya (Niger-Congo). The team problem involved matching the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to their translations in Armenian (Indo-European).

IOL 2015

The 13th IOL was held from July 20 to 24, 2015, at the American University in Bulgaria, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. Chaired by Aleksandar Velinov, it received 43 teams from 29 countries, with Bangladesh, France and Kazakhstan sending teams for the first time. The Problem Committee was chaired by Bozhidar Bozhanov. The five problems at the individual contest were about Nahuatl (Uto-Aztecan) and Arammba (South-Central Papuan) numbers, morphology in the Besleney dialect of Kabardian (Abkhaz-Adyghe), Soundex, Wambaya (West Barkly) syntax and the rules of Somali (Afroasiatic) poetry. The team problem involved using extracts from a monolingual Northern Sotho (Bantu) dictionary to build a grammar and lexicon of the language.

IOL 2016

The 14th IOL was held from July 25 to 29, 2016, at the Infosys Development Center in Mysore, India. Chaired by Dr. Monojit Choudhury and Dr. Girish Nath Jha, it received 44 teams from 31 countries, with Nepal and Sri Lanka sending teams for the first time. The Problem Committee was chaired by Boris Iomdin. The five problems at the individual contest were about spatial deictics in Aralle-Tabulahan (Austronesian), Luwian hieroglyphic script (Indo-European), Kunuz Nubian (Eastern Sudanic) morphosyntax, Iatmül (Sepik) semantics and Jaqaru (Aymaran) morphology. The team problem involved matching over 100 utterances in Taa (Tuu) to their IPA transcriptions.

IOL 2017

The 15th IOL was held from July 31 to August 4, 2017, at Dublin City University in Dublin, Ireland. Chaired by Dr. Cara Greene, it received 43 teams from 27 countries, with Canada sending a Francophone team for the first time. The Problem Committee was chaired by Hugh Dobbs. The five problems at the individual content were about Berom (Plateau) numbers, Abui (Timor-Alor-Pantar) possessives and semantics, Kimbundu (Bantu) morphosyntax, Jru' (Austroasiatic) written in the Khom script and Madak (Meso-Melanesian) morphophonology. The team problem involved establishing correspondences between 87 emojis and their descriptions in Indonesian (Austronesian).

IOL 2018

The 16th IOL was held from July 26 to 30, 2018, at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, Czech Republic. Chaired by Vojtěch Diatka, it received 49 teams from 29 countries, with Malaysia and Denmark competing for the first time. The Problem Committee was chaired by Maria Rubinstein. The five problems at the individual contest concerned Creek (Muskogean) stress, Hakhun (Sal) morphosyntax, Terêna (Arawakan) phonology, counting in Mountain Arapesh (Torricelli) and kinship in Akan (Atlantic-Congo). The team problem examined phonological correspondences among the three Jê languages Mẽbêngôkre, Xavante and Krĩkatí.

IOL 2019

The 17th IOL was held from July 29 to August 2, 2019 at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Yongin, South Korea. Chaired by Minkyu Kim and Yoojung Chae, it received 53 teams from 35 countries, with Hong Kong, Uzbekistan and Colombia competing for the first time. This year was also the first edition of the Asia Pacific Linguistics Olympiad (APLO). The Problem Committee was chaired by Tae Hun Lee. The five problems at the individual contest concerned Yonggom (Ok) morphosyntax, Yurok (Algic) colours, Middle Persian (Iranian) written in Book Pahlavi script, West Tarangan (Aru) reduplication and Nooni (Beboid) morphosyntax and day names. The team problem involved the symbol notation used by judges in rhythmic gymnastics.

IOL 2021

The 18th IOL was scheduled to take place from July 20 to 24, 2020, in Ventspils, Latvia. Due to the widespread COVID-19 pandemic, the International Board of the IOL decided to postpone the event to July 19 to 23, 2021, on which it was successfully held. The competition was held remotely in the respective countries of each team, the first and so far only time that this mode of competition was adopted at the IOL. Chaired by Vladimir Litvinsky, it received 54 teams from 34 countries, with Azerbaijan competing for the first time. The Problem Committee was chaired by Aleksejs Peguševs. The five problems at the individual contest concerned Ekari (Paniai Lakes) numerals, Zuni (Isolate) semantics with special focus on food, Kilivila (Oceanic) morphosyntax, Agbirigba (a cant language) and its derivation from the Ogbakiri dialect of Ikwerre (Atlantic-Congo), and Rikbaktsa (Macro-Jê) morphology. The team problem involved matching sentences in passages written in Garifuna (Arawakan) with its translations, as well as acknowledging the difference between the language's male and female registers and establishing their relationships with Kari'ña (Cariban) and Lokono (Arawakan), respectively.

IOL 2022

The 19th IOL was held from July 25 to 29, 2022 at King William's College in Castletown, Isle of Man. Chaired by Rob Teare, it received 46 teams from 32 countries, with Moldova, Switzerland and Thailand competing for the first time. The Problem Committee was chaired by Samuel Ahmed. The five problems at the individual contest concerned Ubykh (Abkhaz-Adyghe) morphophonology, the semantics and morphophonology of Alabama (Muskogean) verbs, Nǀuuki (Tuu) syntax, Arabana (Pama-Nyungan) kinship, and phonological changes and tonogenesis in two daughter languages of Proto-Chamic, Phan Rang Cham and Tsat. The team problem presented extracts in 17th and 18th century Manchu (Tungusic) from Cheong-eo Nogeoldae and the Kangxi Emperor's Imperially Commissioned Mirror of the Manchu Language for analysis, with tasks involving matching sentences in Old and Modern Manchu to their respective translations as well as writing in the Manchu script.

IOL 2023

The 20th IOL was held from July 24 to July 28, 2023 in Bansko, Bulgaria, for the fourth time in this country. Chaired by Aleks Velinov, it received 51 teams from 37 countries, with Philippines competing for the first time. The Problem Committee was chaired by Milena Veneva. The five problems at the individual contest concerned Guazacapán Xinka (a language of Guatemala with now no living native speakers), Apurinã (Arawak) morphosyntax, Coastal Marind (Papuan) morphosyntax, Plains Cree (Algonquian) verb morphology and the numbering system of Supyire spoken in Mali. The team problem presented extracts from Chester S. Street's dictionary of Murrin-patha, an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by over 2,000 people in the Northern Territory.

IOL 2024

The 21st IOL was held from July 23 to July 31, 2024 at the Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, Brazil, which was the first time the contest was held in the southern hemisphere. Chaired by Bruno L'Astorina, it received 206 contestants in 52 teams from 38 countries, with Iran and Malta competing for the first time. The Problem Committee was chaired by Andrey Nikulin. The five problems at the individual contest concerned Koryak morphology, Hadza syntax and morphology, kinship terms in Kómnzo, semantics in Dâw, and male-female diglossia in Yanyuwa. The team problem involved lexicostatistics, Dolgopolsky's consonant classes, and the "StarlingNJ" algorithm to compute language family trees and stability indices based on lexicostatistical distance.

IOL 2025

The 22nd IOL is expected to be held in Taipei, Taiwan, in the second half of July 2025.

Summary

The different editions of IOL can be summarized on the following table:

No.	Year	Location	Country	Dates		Countries	Participants	Webpage	Problems
1	2003	Borovets	Bulgaria	September 6	September 12	6	33	Link	Link
2	2004	Moscow	Russia	July 31	August 2	7	43	Link	Link
3	2005	Leiden	Netherlands	August 8	August 12	9	50	Link	Link
4	2006	Tartu	Estonia	August 1	August 6	9	51	Link	Link
5	2007	Saint Petersburg	Russia	July 31	August 4	9	61	Link	Link
6	2008	Slantchev Bryag	Bulgaria	August 4	August 9	11	63	Link Archived March 25, 2012, at the Wayback Machine	Link
7	2009	Wrocław	Poland	July 26	July 31	17	86	Link	Link
8	2010	Stockholm	Sweden	July 19	July 24	18	99	Link	Link
9	2011	Pittsburgh	United States	July 24	July 30	19	102	Link Archived June 30, 2013, at the Wayback Machine	Link
10	2012	Ljubljana	Slovenia	July 29	August 4	26	131	Link Archived June 30, 2013, at the Wayback Machine	Link
11	2013	Manchester	United Kingdom	July 22	July 26	26	138	Link Archived August 29, 2017, at the Wayback Machine	Link
12	2014	Beijing	China	July 21	July 25	28	152	Link	Link
13	2015	Blagoevgrad	Bulgaria	July 20	July 24	29	166	Link Archived May 19, 2017, at the Wayback Machine	Link
14	2016	Mysore	India	July 25	July 29	31	167	Link	Link
15	2017	Dublin	Ireland	July 31	August 4	29	180	Link	Link
16	2018	Prague	Czech Republic	July 25	July 31	29	192	Link	Link
17	2019	Yongin	South Korea	July 29	August 2	35	209	Link	Link
–	2020	Ventspils	Latvia	Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
18	2021	Ventspils	Latvia1	July 19	July 23	34	216	Link	Link
19	2022	Castletown	Isle of Man	July 25	July 29	32	185	Link Archived October 6, 2022, at the Wayback Machine	Link
20	2023	Bansko	Bulgaria	July 24	July 28	37	204	Link	Link
21	2024	Brasília	Brazil	July 23	July 31	38	206	Link Archived 4 August 2024 at the Wayback Machine	Link
22	2025	Taipei	Taiwan					Link
23	2026		Romania					Link

1. ^a The competition was held remotely.

Participant countries

Countries ever participating in the IOL

  Hosts (minimum once)

  Participants

Individual medalists

Year	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2003	Borovets, Bulgaria	Alexandra Petrova Boris Turovsky Eddin Najetović	Mirjam Plooij Maria Skhapa	Polina Oskolskaya Ivan Dobrev
2004	Moscow, Russia	Ivan Dobrev Alexander Piperski Ralitsa Markova	Maria Mamykina Todor Chervenkov Tsvetomila Mihaylova Tymon Słoczyński	Alexandra Zabelina Xenia Kuzmina Alexei Nazarov Margus Niitsoo Natalja Hartsenko Nikita Medyankin Sophia Oskolskaya
2005	Leiden, Netherlands	Ivan Dobrev	Eleonora Glazova	Nikita Medyankin Tsvetomila Mihaylova Alexander Piperski Ivaylo Grozdev
2006	Tartu, Estonia	Maria Kholodilova Ivaylo Dimitrov Pavel Sofroniev	Yordan Mehandzhiyski Eleonora Glazova Mihail Minkov Daniil Zorin Sergey Malyshev Alexander Daskalov	Yuliya Taran Nikita Medyankin Diana Aitai Paweł Świątkowski
2007	Saint Petersburg, Russia	Adam Hesterberg Łukasz Cegieła	Kira Kiranova Mihail Minkov Arseniy Vetushko-Kalevich Sander Pajusalu Teele Vaalma Angel Naydenov	Anna Shlomina Yordan Mehandzhiyski Elizaveta Rebrova Maria Kholodilova
2008	Slanchev Bryag, Bulgaria	Alexander Daskalov Hanzhi Zhu Milan Abel Lopuhaa	Anand Natarajan Maciej Janicki Morris Alper Dmitry Perevozchikov Łukasz Cegieła Andrey Nikulin Marcin Filar	Guy Tabachnick Joon Kyu Kang Radosław Burny Diana Sofronieva Jeffrey Lim Karol Konaszyński Yordan Mehandzhiyski Rebecca Jacobs Tatyana Polevaya Georgi Rangelov
2009	Wrocław, Poland	Diana Sofronieva Łukasz Cegieła	Vitaly Pavlenko Andrey Nikulin Yordan Mehandzhiyski Arturs Semenyuks Irene Tamm Łukasz Kalinowski Witold Małecki Aakanksha Sarda Rebecca Jacobs	Deyana Kamburova Szymon Musioł Elena Volkova Laura Adamson Alan Huang Ben Caller Tomasz Dobrzycki John Berman Jun Yeop Lee Sergei Bernstein Hye Jin Ryu
2010	Stockholm, Sweden	Vadim Tukh Andrey Nikulin Ben Sklaroff	Martin Camacho Tian-Yi Damien Jiang Daria Vasilyeva Allen Yuan Aleksejs Peguševs Łukasz Kalinowski Krzysztof Pawlak Daniel Rucki Maciej Dulęba	Mirjam Parve Miroslav Manolov Alexander Iriza Alan Chang Vitaly Pavlenko Artūrs Semeņuks Mona Teppor Jakob Park Diana Glazova Szymon Kanonowicz Roman Stasiński Ellen Sinot Younus Porteous Ana Pavlović Song Jeeun
2011	Pittsburgh, USA	Morris Alper Eva-Lotta Käsper Daria Vasilyeva Aleksey Kozlov	Wesley Jones Allen Yuan Jekaterina Malina Anton Sokolov Alexander Wade Victor Valov Duligur Ibeling Paul Lau	Min Kyu Kim Elena Rykunova Artūrs Semeņuks Hyun Park Rok Kaufman Vadim Tukh Daniel Mitropolsky Nik Moore Daniel Rucki Aaron Klein Dimitar Hristov Mihhail Afanasjev Ralf Ahi
2012	Ljubljana, Slovenia	Anton Sokolov Alexander Wade Vadim Tukh Anderson Wang Konrad Myszkowski Jonathan Hongsoon Kim Marin Ivanov Kristian Kostadinov	Darryl Wu Allan Sadun Eva-Lotta Käsper Tom White Daniel Rucki Aaron Klein Max Allmendinger Ilya Pogodaev Ivan Tadeu Ferreira Antunes Filho Rok Kaufman Hong Bum Choi Ji Wook Kim Sagar Sarda	Pedro Neves Lopes Erik Andersen Magdalena Dakeva Ants-Oskar Mäesalu Omri Faraggi Anna Sarukhanova Melanie Duncan Baichuan Li Anita Mudzhumdar Estere Šeinkmane Yash Sinha Amelia Shaye Lim Jin Edyta Gajdzik Mette-Triin Purde Erik Tamre Anne Ng Yin-Yi
2013	Manchester, UK	Alexander Wade Anton Sokolov Matyas Medek Gabriel Alves da Silva Diniz Michał Hadryś Iva Gumnishka Estere Šeinkmane	Omri Faraggi Yash Sinha Polina Pleshak Kuzma Smirnov Martyna Siejba Aaron Klein Airika Arrik Boryana Hadzhiyska Ivan Zverev Huisu Yun Jeffrey Ling Yulia Markova	Nilai Sarda Vesko Milev Marin Ivanov Ivan Lyutskanov Jacob Karlsson Lagerros Tom McCoy Martyna Judd Ants-Oskar Mäesalu Milena Velikova Jeong Yeon Choi Ekaterina Novikova Maciej Kucharski Daniel Lovsted Maximilian Schindler Jiyun Sung Sarah Tham Jan Bajer
2014	Beijing, China	Milo Andrea Mazurkiewicz Darryl Wu Daniel Lovsted Elysia Warner Anastasiia Dmitrieva Danila Shumskiy Dan Mirea	Ada Melentieva Catherine Wu Chen Tianlu Yan Huang Alexander Babiak Zhang Ming Lara Jerman Chen Run Keisuke Yamada Stanisław Wilczyński Felicia Lane Deven Lahoti Xue Dailin	Anindya Sharma Elena Chaparova Maciej Kocot Matyáš Medek Rajan Dalal Yoojin Jang Dmitrii Zelenskii Annika Kluge Jonathan Johansen Kevin Li Gleb Nikolaev James Bloxham James Abel Yulia Markova Šonita Koroļova Eliška Freibergerová Yang Heran Vitālijs Gusevs Glenn Ee Je Hong Simon Huang Maria Aristova
2015	Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria	James Wedgwood Samuel Ahmed James Bloxham Danail Penev Kevin Yang Liam McKnight Ada Melentyeva	Kevin M Li Ying Ming Poh Conor Stuart-Roe Valentin Dimov Daniil Vedeneev Stanisław Frejlak Jin Xu Julian Gau Dan Mircea Mirea Katarzyna Kowalska Ralitza Dardjonova Anthony Bracey Ivan Oleksiyuk Teodora-Elena Solovan Jan Petr Ruowang Zhang Tina Vladimirova	Bálint Ugrin Nilai Sarda Piotr Gajdzica Zdravko Ivanov Anastasiia Alokhina Pim Spelier Naomi Solomons Anna Tatarenko Jaeyeong Yang Aalok Sathe Anthony Bruce Ma Diana Murzagaliyeva Luke Gardiner Nadezhda Dimitrova Radina Dobreva Emma McLean Irina Česnokova Isabelle Yen Matija Lovšin Naoki Nishiyama Samvida Sudheesh Venkatesh Timurs Davilovs
2016	Mysore, India	Jaeyeong Yang James Wedgwood Liam McKnight Max Zhang Jan Petr Katya Voloshinova Ivan Samodelkin Kristian Georgiev Samuel Ahmed Polina Nasledskova	Margarita Misirpashayeva Ioana Bouroș Shuheng Nelson Niu Joonas Jürgen Kisel Zofia Kaczmarek Tina Vladimirova Matija Lovšin Luo Yiming Krzysztof Choszczyk Erik Metz Anna Tatarenko Mihail Paskov Julia Panchenko Shen-Chang Huang Henry Wu Maria Aristova Maciej Paliga	Tsuyoshi Kobayashi Elena Shukshina Daniel Vedeneev Aalok Sathe Wyatt Reeves Wang Runze David Avellan-Hultman Bruno Ozaki Amanda Kann Agnieszka Dudek Emil Ingelsten Bai Ruiheng Zuzana Gruberová Yu Shuyue Claire O'Connor Tsvetelina Stefanova Theodor Cucu Li Huihan Nadezhda Dimitrova Mazzag Bálint Wojciech Piątek Siye Annie Zhu Mariia Stepaniuk Roman Skurikhin Isobel Voysey Yejoo Han
2017	Dublin, Ireland	Samuel Ahmed Przemysław Podleśny Liam McKnight Ruei Hung Alex Lee Zdravko Ivanov Simeon Hellsten Brian Xiao Valentin Dimov Elena Keskinova Theodor Cucu	Andrew Tockman Takumi Yoshino Joonas Jürgen Kisel Jan Petr Harry Taylor Anja Zdovc Eliška Freibergerová Paweł Piekarz Tereza Maláčová Ben Morris Joseph Feffer Ziyan Heidi Lei Chih-Lun Julian Liu Assel Ismoldayeva Chinmaya Kausik Daniel Vedeneev Szymon Stolarczyk Yao Yung-Jui	Ekaterina Voloshinova Emil Indzhev Chirag C.D. Iga Jaworska Chen Ziche Aleksei Starchenko Ana Meta Dolinar Siye Annie Zhu Emilian Toma Can Yeşildere Sonia Reilly Alicja Maksymiuk Emil Ingelsten Tanya Romanova Ștefan Răzvan Bălăucă Tina Vladimirova Matei Costin Banu Yuito Yoneyama Liu Yuyang Nazar Semkiv Aleksej Jurca Martin Nikolov
2018	Prague, Czech Republic	Przemysław Podleśny Liam McKnight Swapnil Garg Viktor Baltin Zdravko Ivanov Benjamin LaFond Diego Król Rujul Gandhi Pranav Krishna Alicja Maksymiuk Benedict Randall Shaw Angikar Ghosal Andrew Tockman	Jakub Petr Chih-Chun Wang Tanya Romanova Mihir Singhal Yeoh Zi Song Simeon Hellsten Ugrin Bálint József Emil Ingelsten Klara Sapała-Niedzin Tung-Le Pan Elena Keskinova Ethan A. Chi Aparna Ajit Gupte João Henrique Oliveira Fontes Russell Emerine You-Kuan Lin Illya Koval	David Avellan-Hultman Vlada Petrusenko Tsvetelina Stefanova Brian Xiao Ken Jiang Ye Liu Edmund Lea Hari Raghava Prasad James Phillips Yana Shishkina Gustavo Palote da Silva Martins Ekaterina Voloshinova Eliška Freibergerová Sean White Vári-Kakas Andor Árvay-Vass Iván Takumi Nishino Angellika Vojevodina Arkādijs Šaldovs Kevin Liang Shinjini Ghosh Bianca-Mihaela Gănescu Pranava Dhar Martin Puškin Hansol Pi Georgi Yotov Ziche Chen Tiago Scholten Kristina Vashpanova Danyar Kasenov
2019	Yongin, Republic of Korea	Ken Jiang Wesley Zhang Takumi Yoshino Zdravko Ivanov Matey Petkov Haokun Wu Sam Corner Simeon Hellsten Benedict Randall Shaw Andrew Tockman	Diego Król João Henrique Fontes Ziyan Heidi Lei Tianqi Jiang Elena Keskinova Jakub Petr Nathan Kim Denis Korotchenko Skyelar Raiti Russell Emerine Gustavo Palote Ishan Ganguly Harrison Moore Tsvetelina Stefanova Maxim Barganov Zi Song Yeoh Jeremy Zhou Pranav Krishna Jinru Bai Kristian Terlien Daniel Turaev	Tatiana Romanova Kövér Blanka Ekaterina Kozlova Stanislava Khizhniakova Wang, Chih-Chun Vlada Petrusenko Viktor Baltin Matei-Costin Banu Ekaterina Kropanina Angikar Ghosal Aparna Ajit Gupte Haenaem Oh Hant Mikit Kolk Takumi Ose Tsubasa Takahashi Dana Ospanova Nestors Starostins Daria Kryvosheieva Marko Ivanov Kilian Meissner Blaskovics Ákos Rok Tadej Brunšek Zhe Ren Ooi Alex Walker Kristina Vashpanova Lanruo Xie Antara Raaghavi Bhattacharya Seonoo Kim Lee, Yu-Hsuan
2021	Ventspils, Latvia	Roman Shabanov Daria Kryvosheieva Jonathan Huang Ritam Nag Hibiki Sugawara Jan Tryka Takamichi Hoshii Chun-Chi Lin Antara Raaghavi Bhattacharya Xie Lingrui Mihai-Alexandru Bratu Elvira Ageeva	Aleksandra Limonova Tam Lok Hang Alexander Dimitrov Bartosz Chomiński Aleksandra Naydenova Ip Tsz Oi Leonid Zaitsev Toh Jing En Daniel Grigorii Solnyshkin Artem Borisov Nigel Yong Dylan Lim Chun Kiat Samantha Kao Ema Grofová Miklós Gyetvai Zijing Wei Olga Zinovyeva Rio Ogawa Walt Kraeger	Lili Probojcsevity Shao-Chi Ou Deyana Shevchenko Kunaal Chandrashekar Olivia Tennisberg Jeremy Zhou Vedant Singh Miłosz Muszyński Riley Kong Ng Truman Toby Vasilena Lazarova Matic Petek Mihaela Koleva Ilya Tarasov Ivaylo Dimitrov Nicoleta Dobrică Toby Collins Kyuhan Kyung Yi-Ning Chang Louis Cho Jonathan Song Bianca-Maria Crișan Shashwat Mundra Zekai Wu Vishruth Ram Konakanchi Daina Myer Neithardt Kent Do Oscar Despard Nestors Starostins Noah Gorrell Yen-Hsi Huang Darya Peressypkina Yage Grace Xin
2022	Castletown, Isle of Man	Artem Borisov Jun Hyeong Yook Alison Craig-Greene Luke Robitaille Aleksandar Dimitrov Konstantin Georgiev Mihai-Alexandru Bratu Takamichi Hoshii Seiko Ishii	Tam Lok Hang Kunaal Chandrashekar Vlad-Ștefan Oros Riley Kong William Thomson Rishab Parthasarathy Benjamin McAvoy-Bickford Wojciech Szot Gergana Petrova Daria Kryvosheieva Bartłomiej Rozenberg Long Yo Lee George Zhou Yi Ning Chang Yelyzaveta Sherepenko Merlin Fischer Fernando César Gonçalves Filho Toby Collins Siddhant Attavar Artem Boyko Matouš Šafránek Stratos Voudouris Lorenss Martinsons	Anita Dalma Páhán Hyunsoo Park Henry Wong Tok Shing Olivia Tennisberg Viktoriia Zubkova Aida Davletova Ikoma Kudo Réka Wagener Egyházi Hanna Benjamin Móricz Teodor Malchev Vita Korošin Tanupat Trakulthongchai Max Naigeborin Elvira Ageeva Aleksandra Naydenova Katja Andolšek Aidan Wang Nestors Starostins Jan Karpiński Nicoleta Dobrică Darya Peressypkina Kevin Yan Inka Pekkola Junhyuk Kwon Rok Tadej Brunšek Józef Szymański
2023	Bansko, Bulgaria	Tam Lok Hang Ryusei Omiya Wonhyun Soh Vlad-Ștefan Oros Daria Kryvosheieva William Keith Thomson Artem Boyko Kunaal Chandrashekar Konstantin Georgiev Leonardo Torres Leonardo Paillo Eleonora Stepanova	Elena Păvăloaia Panawat Tiacharoen Mihai-Alexandru Bratu Viktoriia Zubkova Jordan Chi Samantha Kao Zhang Yixuan He Jianxing Rei Kano Wong Tok Shing Henry Wojciech Szot Daniel Titmas Alison Craig-Greene Matei Chirila Nestors Starostins Sukrith Velmineti Teodor Malchev Deeraj Pothapragada Eric Wu Bartłomiej Rozenberg Gyuhwa Lee Faraz Ahmed Siddiqui Benjamin Móricz Rami Hennawi	Eleanor Borrel Chung Chi-En Teresa Lage Arul Kolla Jonasz Kościkiewicz Zori Schmidt Merlin Jonathan Fischer Everton Albuquerque De Oliveira Alexander Shlykov Jiang Yiling Perry Dai Benjamin Yang Luiz Satoshi Yunomae Oikawa Darren Su Chen Nuo Brest Lenarčič Mihaela Anghel Hiroto Yasui Gangrae Kim Li Jiying Wang Po-Hsiang Valeriia Pischchymukha Rando Lukk João Pedro Alves Ferreira Mikhail Iomdin Nikolay Georgiev Carl Fredrik Constantin Lidberg Dimos Satoshi Tsukada Hwang Yen-Hsi Matěj Čapka Manoela Ferraz Bognár András Károly
2024	Brasília, Brazil	Deeraj Pothapragada Devin Joe Alison Craig-Greene Yipeng Xu Tyson Lieu Urszula Wąsiewicz Ryusei Omiya Luiza-Teodora Mihai Narongrith Artnarongrith Brest Lenarčič Leonard Kottisch Varin Sikka Anna Bryłowska	Eric Wu Wong Tok Shing Henry Marvin Mao Mikhail Iomdin Matei Chirilă Nadežda Efremova Matěj Čapka Karina-Adriana Stăncescu Samantha Kao Gyuhwa Lee Máté Gergely Virág He Jianxing Jiang Yiling Nia Dimitrova Li-Bang Chen Ekaterina Churkina Mihaela Anghel Animikha Dutta Dhar Keisuke Taeda Patricia Király Gangrae Kim Zhu Yucheng Felipe Moraes Barros Rudolf András Virág	Tanupat Trakulthongchai Satoshi Tsukada Denys Tereshchenko Po-Hsiang Wang Kantetsu Oh Mixail Nikitin Ji Shu Ching Yuji Hokugo Richard Dobíšek Eleonora Stepanova Ani Katelieva Shrilakshmi Venkatraman Choi John Nathaniel Magdalena Vigenina Elena Păvăloaia Nikolay Georgiev Faraz Ahmed Siddiqui Natalia Rewaj Rory Ambrosius Sirma Karadjova Ostap Drushchak Ivanimira Nedelcheva Zachary Yen Nayoon Goo Miroslav Havel Adam Ahlberg Olya Besova Ignacy Jackl

Team medals

Nbr	Year	Location	Team Gold	Team Silver	Team Bronze	Winning team in individual competition
1	2003	Borovets, Bulgaria	Netherlands	Russia-StPetersburg	Russia-Moscow	Netherlands
2	2004	Moskva, Russia	Russia-StPetersburg	Latvia	Bulgaria-1	Bulgaria-1
3	2005	Leiden, The Netherlands	Netherlands	Russia-Moscow	Russia-StPetersburg	Bulgaria-1
4	2006	Tartu, Estonia	Bulgaria-2	Netherlands	Poland-1	Bulgaria-1
5	2007	Sankt-Peterburg, Russia	USA-2 Moscow	Bulgaria-1 Bulgaria-2	None awarded	Estonia
6	2008	Slantchev Bryag, Bulgaria	USA-2 Bulgaria-East	Netherlands USA-1	None awarded	USA
7	2009	Wrocław, Poland	USA-Red	Korea-1	Russia-Moscow	Russia-Moscow
8	2010	Stockholm, Sweden	Latvia	Russia-Moscow	Poland-2	USA-Blue
9	2011	Pittsburgh, USA	USA-Red	Russia-StPetersburg	Russia-Moscow	USA-Red
10	2012	Ljubljana, Slovenia	USA-Blue	Netherlands	Poland-2	Russia-StPetersburg
11	2013	Manchester, UK	USA-Red	Russia-StPetersburg	Bulgaria-1 Romania	USA-Red
12	2014	Beijing, China	USA-Red	Russia-StPetersburg	Russia-Moscow	USA-Red
13	2015	Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria	UK-West	USA-Red	Poland-White Netherlands	USA-Red
14	2016	Mysore, India	Sweden	Australia-1	UK	USA-Red
15	2017	Dublin, Ireland	Taiwan-TaiTWO	Poland-Ą	Slovenia	UK-K
16	2018	Prague, Czech Republic	USA-Blue	USA-Red Bulgaria 1	Brazil Pões UK-U Czechia Tým křivopřísežníků	USA-Blue
17	2019	Yongin, Republic of Korea	Slovenia	China KUN Russia Strelka	Poland Bóbr Russia Belka Malaysia A	USA Red
18	2021	Ventspils, Latvia	Ukraine і	USA Red	India Saffron Canada Moose	Hong Kong EAT
19	2022	Castletown, Isle of Man	Korea Mal	Taiwan Blue Magpie Japan Samurai	Japan Ninja USA Red UK K	USA Red
20	2023	Bansko, Bulgaria	United Kingdom	USA Red Canada Anglophone	Finland Hungary Uborka Poland Ę	Not awarded
21	2024	Brasília, Brazil	Czechia	Poland Świerszcze	Taiwan Black Bear Japan Samurai Slovenia	United Kingdom

All-time medal table

Only countries with at least 1 gold medal are listed. The list is accurate up to 2024. The rank is based on the number of gold medals.

Rank	Country	Appearances	Participants	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total	Honorable Mentions
1	United States	17	140	24	39	28	91	25
2	Bulgaria	21	170	22	26	41	89	24
3	Russia	18	156	17	31	40	88	21
4	United Kingdom	15	92	17	14	16	47	18
5	Poland	20	153	12	27	23	62	38
6	Japan	12	84	7	5	12	24	19
7	Romania	13	59	6	10	12	28	8
8	India	15	92	4	9	18	31	16
9	Republic of Korea	16	128	4	6	19	29	25
10	Brazil	11	67	3	6	9	18	12
11	Ukraine	10	52	3	5	9	17	12
12	Netherlands	21	91	3	3	4	10	20
13	no country	2	8	3	2	3	8	0
14	Taiwan	11	67	2	14	10	26	16
15	Czechia	14	57	2	9	7	18	11
16	Canada (Anglophone)	7	28	2	5	6	13	5
17	Hong Kong	5	24	2	6	4	12	1
18	Australia	15	93	2	3	6	11	10
19	China	11	84	1	13	15	29	23
20	Estonia	21	95	1	7	18	26	16
21	Latvia	21	92	1	5	12	18	13
22	Slovenia	16	78	1	5	10	16	12
23	Germany	10	52	1	3	4	8	14
24	Canada(before 2017)	6	24	1	1	4	6	9
25	Thailand	3	12	1	1	2	4	2

Media coverage

• Newspaper article in The Age "It may be semantics, but linguistics can be a team event". July 27, 2012.

See also

• International Science Olympiad
• North American Computational Linguistics Open competition
• United Kingdom Linguistics Olympiad
• Panini Linguistics Olympiad
• Bulgarian National Olympiad in Linguistics
• Australian Computational and Linguistics Olympiad
• Asia Pacific Linguistics Olympiad

External links

• IOL official website
• Borovetz, 2003 – Official website
• Moscow, 2004 – Official website
• Leiden, 2005 – Official website
• Tartu, 2006 – Official website
• St. Petersburg, 2007 – Official website Archived September 15, 2017, at the Wayback Machine
• Slanchev Bryag, 2008 – Official website Archived March 24, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
• Wrocław, 2009 – Official website
• Stockholm, 2010 – Official website
• Pittsburgh, 2011 – Official website Archived June 30, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
• Ljubljana, 2012 – Official website Archived June 30, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
• Manchester, 2013 – Official website Archived August 29, 2017, at the Wayback Machine
• Beijing, 2014 – Official website
• Blagoevgrad, 2015 – Official website Archived May 19, 2017, at the Wayback Machine
• Mysore, 2016 – Official website
• Dublin, 2017 – Official website
• Prague, 2018 - Official website
• Yongin, 2019 - Official website
• Latvia, 2021 (previously, 2020) - Official website Archived May 12, 2020, at the Wayback Machine