From July 25-August 5, the first ever team from the USA attended the International Geography Olympiad (aka iGEO), held this year in Kyoto, Japan. The team, consisting of Pranav Bhandarkar (North Oconee High School, Bogart, GA), Nirav Ilango (Chattahoochee High School, Johns Creek, GA), Anton Karpovich (Illinois Math and Science Academy, Aurora, IL), and Joe Kiernan (Moorestown Friends School, Moorestown, NJ) finished in 14th place out of 32 teams in the competition. This was by far the highest placing among the three countries attending the Olympiad for the first time. Nirav, Anton, and Joe each won individual overall bronze medals, while Anton and Joe tied for first among the 126 students in the multi-media exam portion of the competition.
All four students, along with team coaches David and Nolwenn Madden enjoyed four days of touring Tokyo followed by the chance to get to meet fellow geography students and educators at the competition. A selection of photos from Team USA’s time in Japan will be posted to the US Geography Olympiad Facebook page in the next few days. Congratulations to the trailblazing 2013 Team USA, and we look forward to shortly beginning the competitions that will determine the 2014 Team USA, which will attend next year’s iGEO in Krakow, Poland!
