India won one gold medal, three bronze medals and an honourable mention at the International Linguistics Olympiad 2026 in Romania. Shrilakshmi Venkatraman secured gold, while four other Indian students earned honours at the global competition.
India has secured a gold medal, three bronze medals and an Honourable Mention at the International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL) 2026 held in Romania, marking another strong performance by the country’s students at the global competition.
As per the IIIT Hyderabad website, gold medallist Shrilakshmi Venkatraman emerged as India’s top performer. Aarav Anil Rao, Nishanth Shankar Lakshmanan and Advay Misra won bronze medals, while Soham Amit Pednekar received an Honourable Mention. The Indian contingent has consistently won honours in categories including Best Solution, Best Team and Best Student at the IOL since 2009.
Speaking about her experience at the Olympiad, gold medallist Shrilakshmi Venkatraman said, "I loved the semantic problem about colour terms in Yelî Dnyé from the individual problem set. The phenomenon was very unique and interesting to unravel."
The Indian team’s participation and preparation are supported through the Panini Linguistics Olympiad (PLO), with IIIT Hyderabad taking over its mentoring in 2015 through its Language Technologies Research Centre (LTRC). The programme trains students to solve challenging language-based puzzles that test logical reasoning, pattern recognition and computational thinking. Unlike mathematics or physics Olympiads, IOL problems do not require prior knowledge of linguistics.
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