TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A team of Taiwanese teens took two gold, one silver, and one bronze at the 20th International Geography Olympiad (iGeo), which concluded over the weekend.
This year's competition was held in Dublin, Ireland, from Aug. 19-24, featuring 183 competitors from 46 countries between the ages of 16 and 19. This year's medal haul was the highest since the competition was established in 1996 with the team placing 4th behind the US, Australia, and Indonesia, per Liberty Times.
Gold medalist Su Po-yuan (蘇柏元) from Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School will be studying in the Department of Physics at National Taiwan University (NTU). The other gold medal winner, Tseng Hsiang-chien (曾向謙), graduated from Taichung Municipal Taichung First Senior High School this year and will study International Business at NTU.
Silver medalist Tien Hsiu-ming (田修明) is a second-year student at the Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University. Bronze medalist Chi Chun-han (紀均翰) graduated from Taichung Municipal Taichung First Senior High School this year and will study in the School of Medicine at China Medical University.
Su said he learned practical skills from geography such as cartography, argumentation, and observation, which gave him different perspectives on observing the world and Taiwan. Tseng believes that geography is a tool for understanding the world, and the Geography Olympiad encourages students to apply geographical knowledge in their daily lives.
Tien hopes to make geography his future career. Chi said beyond broadening his horizons, he has also gained a deeper understanding of the people and events around him through his geography studies.
This year's team was headed by Ho Lih-der (何立德) from the Department of Geography at National Kaohsiung Normal University. The deputy leader was Wang Sen-do (王聖鐸), an associate professor with the Department of Geography at National Taiwan Normal University.
This year's competition took place at Maynooth University. In addition to observation, recording, and evaluation, participants had to draw landscape and land-use maps quickly. Wang said the performance of Taiwan's four participants was “remarkable.”
The competition consists of three tests: fieldwork, which accounts for 40%, a test on geographical issues, also 40%, and a multimedia test, which accounts for 20%. The entire competition is conducted in English, requiring participants to excel in subject knowledge, foreign language proficiency, and presentation skills, making it highly challenging.
