Press releases

16 Aug 2021

Gold medal for Belarus at International Geography Olympiad

An archive photo

MINSK, 16 August (BelTA) - Denis Rabchuk, a student of Brest gymnasium No. 1, won a gold medal at the 17th International Geography Olympiad (iGeo 2021). This year, the competition was held from 10 to 16 August in an online format, BelTA learned from Belarusian State University.

This is the second ever gold medal of Belarusian schoolchildren at the International Geography Olympiad.

The Belarusian team also included Ilya Tucha (Gymnasium No. 1 of Baranovichi), Leonid Polkhovsky (Mogilev State Regional Lyceum No. 3) and Dmitry Mikhasko (Gymnasium No. 2 of Vitebsk). The young geographers won two silver and six bronze medal at the European Geography Olympiad and thus advanced to the international Olympiad.

The team was coached by Dean of the Geography and Geoinformatics Faculty at Belarusian State University Dmitry Kurlovich and Associate Professor of the Economic and Social Geography Chair Ilya Zaprudsky.

The students were asked to do a multimedia test, theoretical tasks and to demonstrate analytical skills while working with field geographical and geological materials. All tasks were provided and performed in English.

A total of 200 students from 46 countries took part in iGeo-2021. This year the host country of the Olympiad was Turkey. France will host the event in 2022.

The International Geography Olympiad has been held since 1996 under the patronage of the International Geographical Union with the aim of stimulating active interest in geographical and environmental studies among young people. The event was first held in The Hague, the Netherlands. The International Geography Olympiad is a competition for 16- to 19-year-old geography students from all over the world. Before 2012, the Olympiad was organized every two years. In 2013 it became an annual event. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 iGeo edition in Istanbul, Turkey was canceled. Over the time of the international competition the geography of the participating states has expanded from 5 to 46 countries.