Balkan Nations at International Science Olympiads in 2025

During the last few weeks, the 2025 edition of various International Science Olympiads took place and the strong results obtained by the Romanian team at these contests (among others, the Informatics team achieved a historic perfect result as mentioned in the post made by Romania's Informatics Society) made me curious about the performance of various Balkan nations at these contests this year.

Over the years and decades, nations in the Eastern Europe and especially in Balkans have earned strong results at the various science olympiads, managing to punch themselves above their weight as the tradition of excellence, combined with the legacy of the former communist era allows the students from these nations to become some of the best competitors at the most prestigious competitions worldwide for high school students.

International Olympiads are a way we can observe the abilities of each country's educational system to produce exceptional individuals who in many cases go on and become top researchers, scientists or even entreprenurs and future leaders (as an example, Romania's president won IMO twice in the late 80s).

Medals earned

This year, the five olympiads we will be looking at (Mathematics, Physics, Informatics, Biology and Chemistry) took place during July, with dozens of nations (more than 100 in case of IMO) participating at these contests, sending teams of 4 to 6 students who are the best students selected after rigorous national selections which span multiple months and in some cases, even the entire year.

While Romania and Turkey did really well, it is worth remarking the results Bosnia and North Macedonia earned, while on the other hand, Croatia underperformed.

Here we can observe Slovenia's great achievement, by having 4 of its students earn medals, including a gold medal.

Romania's perfect result, as well as Bulgaria's strong showoff are worth noting.

While not as popular as the other olympiads, IBO has its champions as well, with Turkey being a regional powerhouse.

While the region as a whole did well, it is worth remarking Moldova's success at this particular discipline.

Conclusions

As it traditionally happens, Balkan nations have done a remarkable job at these olympiads, showing once again the ambition and the talent the students from this region have. From my experience of having worked with many people from the region over the years, this area is full of talented students and the STEM education students get can be exceptional, however it is also worth noting that while the elite students are some of the best from the world, the results at the various standardized tests are not as good as they could be.

Result links

Mathematics - IMO 2025 Results

Physics - IPHO 2025 Results

Informatics - IOI 2025 Results

Biology - IBO 2025 Results

Chemistry - ICHO 2025 Results