// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did the medal say at the International Science Olympiad? "I'm an element of success.

The International Science Olympiads are a group of worldwide annual competitions in various areas of the formal sciences, natural sciences, and social sciences. The competitions are designed for the 4-6 best high school students from each participating country selected through internal National Science Olympiads, with the exception of the International Linguistics Olympiad, which allows two teams per country, the International Olympiad on Informatics, which allows two teams from the hosting country, and the International Junior Science Olympiad, which is designed for junior secondary students and also allows two teams from the hosting country. Early editions of the first Olympiads were limited to the Eastern Bloc, but later they gradually spread to other countries.^[1]

International Science Olympiads

There are 11 commonly recognized International Science Olympiads:

#	Science Olympiad	Abbreviation	Years	2025 host country	2026 host country	Reference
1	International Mathematical Olympiad	IMO	since 1959	Australia	China	^[2]
2	International Physics Olympiad	IPhO	since 1967	France	Colombia	^[3]
3	International Chemistry Olympiad	IChO	since 1968	United Arab Emirates	Uzbekistan
4	International Olympiad in Informatics	IOI	since 1989	Bolivia	Uzbekistan
5	International Biology Olympiad	IBO	since 1990	Philippines	Lithuania
6	International Philosophy Olympiad	IPO	since 1993	Italy	Poland
	International Astronomy Olympiad^[a]	IAO	since 1996	Bangladesh
7	International Geography Olympiad	iGeo	since 1996	Thailand	Turkey
8	International Linguistics Olympiad	IOL	since 2003	Taiwan	Romania
9	International Junior Science Olympiad	IJSO	since 2004	Russia	Bulgaria
10	International Earth Science Olympiad	IESO	since 2007	China	Italy
11	International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics	IOAA	since 2007	India	Vietnam