India won one gold, three bronze medals and an honourable mention at the International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL) 2026 in Romania.

Shrilakshmi Venkatraman won the gold medal, and Aarav Anil Rao, Nishanth Shankar Lakshmanan and Advay Misra bagged bronze medals. Soham Amit Pednekar received an honourable mention.

The IOL brings together school students from more than 40 countries and tests their ability to decode patterns in unfamiliar languages through logic, analytical reasoning and pattern recognition.

India has participated in the IOL since 2009 and has now won 37 medals at a tally of six gold, nine silver and 22 bronze, besides other honours.

IIIT Hyderabad has played a key role in India’s participation since taking over mentoring of the Panini Linguistics Olympiad in 2015. Its Language Technologies Research Centre supports student training, mentoring and selection through camps, problem-solving sessions and mock Olympiads.