International Physics Olympiad

Poland seemed to offer the best conditions at the time, and so the first IPhO was held in Warsaw in 1967, organized by Czesław Ścisłowski.

The second IPhO was held in Hungary, with the additional participation of the German Democratic Republic, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.

[4] With growing size and organizational effort (and no participation fee at that time), no country was willing to arrange an IPhO in 1973.

Since then, the IPhO has been held regularly every year except 2020 due to the pandemic,[5] and the organization has become a prestigious endeavor that many countries are happy to take.

With over 80 actively participating countries today, each IPhO is a big event with around 700 attendees and a total budget of several million euros.

[9] A small fraction of the cost is covered by a participation fee of around €3500 per team, which was introduced in 1997 on a voluntary basis and made obligatory in 2013.

[4] There the statutes and the syllabus[8] were officially accepted by the International Board, which consists of the delegation heads from all participating countries.

This position was held by Waldemar Gorzkowski until the 2007 Olympiad, then Maija Ahtee (2007–2008), Hans Jordens (2008–2018) and Rajdeep Singh Rawat (2018 onwards).

The participant with the highest score (absolute winner) receives a special prize, in addition to a gold medal.