Israeli Team Wins 5 Medals, Including Gold, at International Physics Olympiad in Colombia

Shiryn Ghermezian

The Israeli delegation at the 56th International Physics Olympiad. Photo: Facebook/Israel’s Ministry of Education

Israel’s national physics team has won a gold medal and four silver medals at the 56th International Physics Olympiad in Bucaramanga, Colombia, according to Israel’s Ministry of Education.

Every member of the Israeli delegation earned a medal at the competition, which ran from July 4-12, 2026. The gold went to the team’s youngest member, 10th grader Ruth Kozlowski, who was competing in the Olympiad for the first time. Silver medals went to Noam Fleisig and Ahaya Kellner, both high school seniors, along with Eitan Rothman and Elad Agmon.

The team trained at the Jusidman Science Center for Youth at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, under academic director Prof. Oleg Kryczevsky and head coach Pavel Radziwilovsky.

A total of 381 students from 87 countries competed in this year’s Olympiad, one of the world’s most prestigious physics competitions for secondary school students. Contestants were tested across a range of areas, including thermodynamics, optics, particle physics and nuclear physics.

The result continues a strong recent run for Israeli competitors: at the 2025 Olympiad, held in France, the national team also brought home one gold and four silver medals. First staged in Warsaw in 1967, the International Physics Olympiad was hosted by Israel in 2019.