The 2oth International Geography Olympiad took place in Ireland from 19 to 24 August, 2024 under the auspices of the International Geographical Union Olympiad Task Force. IGEO events took place in Maynooth town, the University of Maynooth and Trinity College Dublin. This year 184 school students from 46 countries took part in the Olympiad.

Belarusian team captained by BSU teachers won two silver and two bronze medals. This is the best result ever!

Alexandra Bogdanova, a graduate of Baranovichi Secondary School No. 18 and Nikolai Misiyuk, a tenth-grader of Brest Gymnasium No.2 have won silver. To add, this is already Alexandra’s second best performance this year as in July she has won gold at the International Geography Olympiad in Serbia.

Vadim Ignatenko, a graduate of Vitebsk Gymnasium No. 1 named after Zhores Alferov, and Alexey Klimko, a tenth-grader of Minsk Secondary School No. 118, took home bronze.

The team was captained by Dmitry Vorobyov, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Geography and Geoinformatics at BSU, and Andrey Bezruchenok, Associate Professor of the Department of Economic and Social Geography.

It is noteworthy that Alexandra Bogdanova and Vadim Ignatenko have already been admitted to the named faculty of the country's leading university.

As part of the competition participants had to complete a multi-media test, theory tasks on physical and socio-economic geography and show their best practice skills of solving geography cases in fieldwork requiring observation.

Practice stage involved exploring three locations in Maynooth: the university campus, the main street, and the railway station. The tasks were based on the principles of the third goal of sustainable development - health and well-being.

On the campus, it was necessary to identify places that contributed to the improvement of the quality of life of students, and also to answer how the urban environment contributes to this. On the main street, the guys looked for and marked on the map problem areas that hindered the free movement of people, and proposed solutions. At the third point, the participants created a map of the railway station. To do this, they also thought out the functional zoning of the adjacent territory, taking into account the abilities of different groups of people to move around it.

All tasks were completed in English. It should be noted that international geographic Olympiads are the only ones among subject Olympiads where the materials for participants are not translated into Russian.

It is worth noting that the International Geography Olympiad is an annual competition for the best 16 to 19 years old geography students from all over the world. Students chosen to represent their countries are the very best, chosen from thousands of students who participate enthusiastically in their own National Geography Olympiads.