India wins gold and three bronze at the International Linguistics Olympiad 2026 in Romania

India's contingent at the International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL) 2026, held in Romania, has brought home one gold medal, three bronze medals, and an honourable mention. Shrilakshmi Venkatraman won the gold, while Aarav Anil Rao, Nishanth Shankar Lakshmanan, and Advay Misra secured bronze, with Soham Amit Pednekar earning an honourable mention. This continues India's strong track record at the event, where school students from over 40 countries compete by identifying patterns in unfamiliar languages using logic and reasoning, rather than prior linguistics knowledge.

Indian Player Performance in the International Linguistics Olympiad 2026

India has taken part in the IOL since 2009 and has built up a solid medal tally over the years. With this year's haul, the country's overall record now stands at 37 medals — six gold, nine silver, and 22 bronze — along with nine 'best solution' awards and 19 honourable mentions.

IIIT Hyderabad has mentored the PLO since 2015 through its Language Technologies Research Centre, working alongside institutions like IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Madras, and IISc Bengaluru. Many past PLO participants have gone on to build careers in AI and natural language processing, showing how this competition doubles as a stepping stone into language technology fields.

How was the 2026 Indian team selected?

The team was chosen through the Panini Linguistics Olympiad (PLO), India's national screening competition for the IOL. The process kicked off with registrations in November last year, followed by a qualifying contest in February 2026. Out of 525 initial entries, 338 students appeared for this qualifying round, with the top performers advancing further.

The final selection stage involved a 10-day residential camp at IIIT Hyderabad, from May 31 to June 10, featuring lectures, mentoring, problem-solving sessions, and mock Olympiads. Team selection was based on scores from the second-round test, after which the chosen students went through an intensive boot camp before heading to Romania. Prof Parameswari Krishnamurthy of IIIT Hyderabad led the Indian delegation.