South Africa’s national programming team has returned home with four awards from the 2026 International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
The team brought home one Bronze medal and three Honourable Mention certificates, a strong showing against some of the toughest competition the country has faced at this level.
The results were:
Youkyum Kim — Bronze medal
David Eyal — Honourable Mention
Nico Schreuder — Honourable Mention
Erik Senekal — Honourable Mention
The four were selected to represent South Africa on the strength of their performances at the 2025 Programming Olympiad, followed by a rigorous series of national training camps throughout the year in the lead-up to Tashkent. The delegation was led by Chanelle Booysen, project manager of Computer Olympiad South Africa (SACO), with Benjamin Kleyn serving as team leader and Noah Jacobsen as deputy leader.
The IOI is one of only five official International Science Olympiads and is patronised by UNESCO and IFIP. It is widely regarded as the most prestigious computer science competition for secondary school students anywhere in the world, and alumni of the competition have gone on to shape some of the biggest names in global technology.
This year’s Olympiad was one of the largest and most competitive in the event’s 38-year history. 375 contestants from 92 countries converged on Tashkent to compete. The competition is truly global.
The bar for medals was high. Contestants competed over two gruelling five-hour sessions, tackling algorithmic problems designed to test not just coding speed but deep problem-solving ability, out of a maximum possible score of 600 points.
Only 32 competitors worldwide earned Gold, 62 earned Silver, and 94 earned Bronze. The rest of the top half received Honourable Mentions.
Youkyum Kim’s Bronze places him in the top quarter of Olympians, while David, Nico and Erik’s Honourable Mentions place all three among the world’s best young programmers.
David Eyal (International School of Cape Town), Nico Schreuder (Bishop), Youkyum Kim (Reddam House Durbanville), Frederick Senekal (Die Hoërskool Menlopark)
South Africa’s presence at the 2026 IOI is a continuation of a deep history of programming Olympiads in South Africa. The team is picked through a rigorous, year-long selection and training pipeline run by Computer Olympiad South Africa (SACO), beginning with the Programming Olympiad (PO). The PO is a free nationwide programming competition open to learners from Grade 8 to Grade 12.
Each year in July, thousands of learners write the first round of the Programming Olympiad at their schools. The strongest performers advance to a second round, and from there, a group of finalists competes in the Final Round to be named among South Africa’s top young programmers.
From that pool, 10 contestants are invited to attend a series of national IOI Training Camps to enter the IOI in the following year. Rather than being selected on Final Round results alone, the four-person IOI team is chosen only after the third and final training camp, based on each contestant’s performance across all three camps.
This year’s team (Youkyum Kim, David Eyal, Nico Schreuder and Erik Senekal) then went into several more months of intensive, focused training under deputy leader Noah Jacobsen, in preparation for Tashkent.
This same cycle (Programming Olympiad, training camps, team selection, and intensive final preparation) runs every year, and is the engine behind South Africa’s continued presence on the IOI stage.
The 2027 team starts here
With a successful trip to Tashkent done, attention now turns to the next cycle. This year’s Programming Olympiad is already under way. Round 1 took place from 27 to 31 July 2026, and Round 2 followed on 26 August 2026. This year’s finalists will identify a new group of contestants for the IOI Training Camps, from which the team for the IOI 2027 in Germany will be selected.
Learners, parents, and teachers who missed this year’s entry window can start preparing now to take part in the 2027 Programming Olympiad, which will open for entries early in 2027.
Teachers and parents who want to get their learners involved, or schools interested in hosting or promoting the Programming Olympiad, can find registration details and more information at Computer Olympiad South Africa’s website in January 2027.