Five Indonesian teenagers flew home from Colombia this month with more hardware than most national sports federations bring back from an entire Olympic cycle. One gold. Two silver. Two bronze. Five medals, five students, zero left empty-handed.

At a glance

• 5 medals total: 1 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze
• 381 students from 93 countries competed
• 87 competing nations, 6 observer nations
• Event ran July 4–14, 2026, in Bucaramanga, Colombia

That's the full haul from Indonesia's team at the 56th International Physics Olympiad (IPhO), the annual competition where each country sends its five sharpest pre-university physics minds to solve theoretical and experimental problems most university sophomores would sweat over. This year it was hosted in Bucaramanga, a mid-sized Colombian city known as "the city of parks," where the closing ceremony was lit in Olympiad blue and every medalist walked out draped in their national flag.

How Did Indonesia's Team Perform at IPhO 2026 ?

The gold went to Evan Syatia To, a student at SMA BPK Penabur Gading Serpong in Tangerang, Banten. Silver medals were split between Ackhava Adam Malonda of SMA Wardaya, Jakarta, and Gusti Komang Abhika Atmaja of SMA Kesatuan Bangsa, Yogyakarta. The two bronze medals went to Arrow Dunatos Pascha Kristian of SMA Negeri Unggulan MH Thamrin, Jakarta, and Juan Richie of SMA Kristen Immanuel in Pontianak, West Kalimantan.

That last detail matters more than it looks. Pontianak isn't a city that usually shows up in national science headlines  it's on the equator in West Kalimantan, a 2.5-hour flight from Jakarta, and not exactly an Olympiad-prep hub. A student from there medaling on the same stage as competitors from Java's most resourced schools is the kind of detail that quietly undercuts the assumption that scientific talent only grows in Jakarta and Yogyakarta.

Why Does the 2026 Physics Olympiad Matter This Much?
IPhO isn't a school science fair. Each country sends a maximum of five students, and this year those five slots were contested by 381 teenagers from 87 competing nations plus six observer countries  one of the largest fields in the competition's 56-year history. Contestants sit through two separate five-hour exams: one theoretical, one experimental, with a rest day in between so nobody's brain is fried by round two.

Indonesia's delegation was photographed together in matching batik on July 5, 2026, ahead of the exams — a small detail, but it's the kind of image that tends to travel further on Indonesian Instagram than any medal count screenshot: five students, in batik, representing the country on a stage in South America.