The University of Bucharest congratulates the pupils and their professors, members of the national Olympic teams who achieved outstanding results at the International Linguistic Olympiad (IOL 2023) in Bulgaria: one gold, three silver, two bronze medals and two mentions.
The Romanian batch was coordinated by assist. Valentina Cojocaru, PhD, teaching staff at the Faculty of Letters of UB and researcher at the Institute of Linguistics “Iorgu Iordan – Alexandru Rosetti” in Bucharest, assist. Roxana Magdalena Preda, PhD, teaching staff at the Faculty of Letters of UB and by Paul Helmer, associate teaching staff at the Faculty of Automation and Computers of the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, former international Olympian at IOL. The three coordinators were also the ones who accompanied the Olympic teams to Bulgaria at the IOL.
The International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL 2023) held from July 23-29 in Bansko, Bulgaria, brought together 52 teams from 38 countries, totaling 204 participating pupils. According to the program of the event, the Olympic teams had the opportunity to discover the Bansko resort area.
The laureates of the International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL 2023) are:
Vlad-Ștefan Oros, 12th grade, pupil at the “Grigore Moisil” Theoretical High School in Timișoara, won a gold medal. He ranked 4th in the world in the individual competition.
Mihai-Alexandru Bratu, 12th grade, pupil at “Tudor Vladimirescu” National College in Târgu Jiu, won a silver medal.
Matei Chirilă, 11th grade, pupil at “Nicolae Bălcescu” Theoretical High School in Cluj-Napoca, won a silver medal.
Elena Păvăloaia, 9th grade, pupil at the “Saint Sava” National College in Bucharest, won a silver medal.
Valeriia Pishchymukha, 10th grade, pupil at the “George Coșbuc” National College in Cluj-Napoca, won a bronze medal.
Mihaela Anghel, 9th grade, pupil at the “Alexandru Ghica” Theoretical High School in Alexandria, won a bronze medal.
Elena Tamara Ivanof, 12th grade, pupil at the “Grigore Moisil” Theoretical High School in Tulcea, obtained an Honorable Mention.
Andrei Cristian Nedelea Bolboacă, 9th grade, pupil at the “Mihai Viteazul” National College in Bucharest, obtained an Honorable Mention.
The eight pupils are the ones who won one gold, three silver and four bronze medals at the 2023 edition of the Asia-Pacific Linguistic Olympiad (APLO – Asia-Pacific Linguistic Olympiad).
With the achievement of these results at IOL 2023, Vlad Ștefan Oros (silver medal in 2022, gold medal in 2023) joins the list of the most successful participants, which also includes Mihai Alexandru Bratu (gold medal in 2021, gold medal in 2022 and the silver medal in 2023), which reconfirms his status as “the best Romanian participant of all time”.Also, another particular case is that of the bronze medalist, Valeriia Pishchymukha. Originally from Ukraine, the student participated in the National Linguistics Olympiad starting from the 7th grade. Although she started learning Romanian less than two years ago, Valeriia managed to rank in the top eight students at the previous stage, and in 2023 she managed to represent Romania at the IOL in Bulgaria and rank on the podium.
IOL 2024 will be held in Brazil
The individual competition lasted six hours and involved solving five subjects, and the team test lasted four hours and involved solving one subject. This year, for the first time, Romania had a batch of eight pupils, made up of two teams. Both are recognized as officially participating teams, but only one received funding from the Ministry of Education, the other being funded by sponsorships, as the representatives of the Romanian Linguistic Olympiad – OLR wrote.
In 2022, the group of four students took third place in the world for Romania, with a gold, silver and bronze medal each.
More information on the 2023 edition of the International Linguistics Olympiad can be found on the competition website.
The 21st edition of the IOL will take place in July 2024 and will be held in Brazil.