India Wins Gold and Three Bronze Medals at International Linguistics Olympiad 2026

India has secured one gold medal, three bronze medals and an honourable mention at the International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL) 2026 in Romania, continuing its strong record at the global competition for pre-university students.

Shrilakshmi Venkatraman won gold, while Aarav Anil Rao, Nishanth Shankar Lakshmanan and Advay Misra earned bronze medals. Soham Amit Pednekar received an honourable mention. The IOL brings together school students from more than 40 countries and challenges them to decode patterns in unfamiliar languages using logic, analytical reasoning and problem-solving skills.

India has participated in the Olympiad since 2009. According to the Panini Linguistics Olympiad (PLO) at IIIT Hyderabad, Indian participants have collectively won 37 medals, including six gold, nine silver and 22 bronze, along with numerous best-solution awards and honourable mentions.

The 2026 team was selected through PLO, India's national-level selection and training programme. Registrations opened in November 2025, followed by a qualifying competition in February 2026. Of 525 registrations, 338 students participated in the qualifying round before the leading candidates progressed to further testing and an invitational camp.

The selection process included a 10-day residential programme at IIIT Hyderabad from May 31 to June 10. Students underwent lectures, mentoring, problem-solving sessions, mock Olympiads and assessments, with final team selection based on second-round performance. The selected teams subsequently completed an intensive boot camp before travelling to Romania.

The Indian delegation was led by Prof. Parameswari Krishnamurthy of IIIT Hyderabad. The institute has mentored PLO since 2015 through its Language Technologies Research Centre, working with academic institutions across the country.

Unlike conventional subject Olympiads, linguistics competitions do not require extensive prior knowledge. Participants analyse unfamiliar languages and identify grammatical, phonological and structural patterns, making logical reasoning, pattern recognition and computational thinking central to success.

The competition also provides a pathway into fields such as artificial intelligence, natural language processing and language technology, with several former PLO participants pursuing higher education and careers in these areas.