Published on: 2026-08-17
Source: The Government of the Russian Federation –
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The Russian team won two gold and two silver medals at the 38th International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), held in Tashkent (Republic of Uzbekistan). One of the team members – Vladislav Zhiganov – took the overall second place among all participants. The Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko and the Minister of Education Sergey Kravtsov congratulated the participants on their successful performance in the prestigious intellectual competition.
“Very recently, the Russian team won at the International AI Olympiad, and now we are honoring the medalists of the International Informatics Olympiad. These outstanding results demonstrate the phenomenal skill of the students. Now, Russian schoolchildren have collected 31 medals from the main international olympiads of 2026: 25 gold and 6 silver. This is the result of the students’ hard work, wise advice from mentors, and support from parents. I wish the medalists effective use of the opportunities of the national project “Youth and Children,” to boldly realize their ideas, and in the future to contribute to accelerating the creation of innovations – the importance of which was emphasized by President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin at the meeting of the Council on Science and Education in Novosibirsk,” said Dmitry Chernyshenko.
The Russian national team includes:
- Vladislav Zhiganov (gold, Specialized Educational and Scientific Center of Moscow State University, Moscow);
- Maxim Kravchenko (gold, Vorobyovy Gory Educational Complex, Moscow);
- Sergey Mukhanov (silver, educational complex “Vorobyovy Gory”, Moscow);
- Vladimir Zvezdin (silver, State Budgetary Educational Institution of the City of Saint Petersburg “Presidential Physics and Mathematics Lyceum No. 239”, Saint Petersburg).
Participants of the IOI solved algorithmic problems in the C++ programming language under strict isolation, without access to phones or the internet.
“The team honorably represented Russia at the world’s most prestigious intellectual competition, which brought together participants from 97 countries, and confirmed last year’s success. Informatics is one of the key disciplines forming the foundation of technological leadership. Four medals from four participants is convincing proof of the high level of the Russian school, as well as the talent and diligence of the students. The final composition of the team was determined by a rating based on the results of training camps and the All-Russian Schoolchildren’s Olympiad. Over three years at the informatics olympiad, Russian schoolchildren have won 12 medals, 8 of which were gold. I am confident that the experience gained in the competition will become a solid foundation for their future achievements in science and technology,” noted Minister of Education Sergey Kravtsov.
The preparation of the Russian schoolchildren’s team was led by a coaching staff headed by Aleksey Maleev, director of the Higher School of Software Engineering at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Among the mentors of the high school students were Anton Bely, coach at the MIPT IT Education Development Center, and Andrey Stankevich, dean of the Faculty of Information Technologies and Programming at ITMO University.
“The results of Russian schoolchildren at IOI 2026 have confirmed the quality of the domestic system for training IT personnel starting from school. The students who participated in the olympiad are the future intellectual elite of our country, who will create sovereign IT solutions, develop artificial intelligence, and shape the digital world of tomorrow. I thank the mentors from MIPT and partner universities for their systematic work, which year after year enables participants from Russia to achieve global leadership in competitions,” said MIPT Rector Dmitry Livanov.
IOI is an annual international informatics competition for middle and high school students. The contest has been held since 1989 and is considered the most prestigious in this field. In 2025, Russian schoolchildren won two gold and two silver medals there.
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