Elima Afzalshoeva, an 11th-grade pupil at the HSE University Lyceum, won a bronze medal at the International Olympiad on Climate Change and Environmental Issues (IOCE) 2026, held in the Sirius Federal Territory. The five-strong Russian team won one gold, two silver and two bronze medals and topped the overall team standings for the third consecutive year.
She said she only believed in the medal after seeing her scores, and that the hardest part was learning to work as a team. Because the format differs from national olympiads, she had to memorise a great deal of new English-language material every day.
The practical team round was the most demanding, combining fieldwork with laboratory analysis. Using geobotanical surveys and chemical analysis of soil and water samples from Sochi National Park, her team assessed the state of the environment and proposed solutions to the problems they identified.
Her interest in ecology began in the eighth grade, through biology and academic competitions. She sees ecology as a way of understanding the world as an interconnected system, wants to work in the field and plans to take a master’s degree in economics, which she considers essential for environmental issues.
