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Eight Medals From Turin: Kuwait the Only Arab Country at the Earth Science Olympiad

Four pupils competed against entrants from forty-two nations in the nineteenth edition, and came home with gold, silver and bronze.

Layers of rock strata exposed in a cliff face

The International Earth Science Olympiad is an annual competition for school pupils in geology, physical geography, atmospheric and ocean science, and astronomy. Its nineteenth edition was held in Turin, with pupils from forty-two countries taking part.

The figure that stands out

Kuwait was the only Arab country competing, and it came away with eight medals — gold, silver and bronze between them.

Who represented Kuwait

A team of four: Ghalia Al Anzi, Talal Al Mutairi, Kawthar Al Qattan and Narjes Sabti.

What the ministry said

The minister of education, Sayed Jalal Al Tabtabaei, called the result a source of pride for the education system in a press statement, and said achieving it in a competition drawing pupils from forty-two countries confirms the level Kuwaiti pupils have reached and their ability to compete scientifically at a global level.

Why this matters now

The competition is not in mathematics or physics but in earth science: its layers, its climate, its oceans. That is a field which touches Kuwait directly on questions of water, soil, dust and climate — and a result like this says there are pupils in the schools studying it and doing it well.

Photo: rock strata. By Grand Canyon NPS, CC BY 2.0 via Flickr.

Source: Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), Ministry of Education statement, 27 August 2026.

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