ALI EMRE BILGIC
International Economics Olympiad Shenzhen 2026
Silver in Shenzhen.
In July 2026 I represented Türkiye at the International Economics Olympiad, competing against finalists from nearly sixty countries. I came home with a silver medal, a talk I'll never forget giving, and friends on almost every continent.
SILVER
MEDAL
Awarded at the closing ceremony, IEO 2026.
~60
Countries
National teams of high school economists.
1 of 12
IEOx speakers
Chosen from all applicants for originality and clarity.
9 days
In Shenzhen
12–20 July 2026, the 9th International Economics Olympiad.
Why I competed
I wanted to see if I could think like an economist under pressure.
Most of my economics lived in courses, books and my own research, where I could take as long as I needed. An olympiad is different. It's closer to a basketball game: a clock, a problem you've never seen, and a decision you have to commit to.
That's what drew me in. I wanted to know whether the ideas I'd been reading about actually held up when I had to use them quickly, explain them clearly and defend them in front of judges. I also wanted to meet the people around the world who care about this as much as I do.
The road to Shenzhen
From a national round to a world final.
No one enters the IEO final directly. Each country sends a team of up to five students, chosen through a national selection round earlier in the year.
MONTH 1
National selection round
Competed against students from across Türkiye for a place on the national team. Add: how the round worked and how many students took part
MONTH 2
Named to Team Türkiye
Selected as one of the students representing the country in Shenzhen.
Spring 2026
Preparation
Months of past papers, timed practice and business case drills with my teammates. Add: one real detail, e.g. how often you trained or what was hardest
The competition
Three rounds in one week: an individual test, written open questions and a team business case presented to judges.
18 July
IEOx Youth Talks
Gave a live talk to an audience of around 400 people from the whole IEO community.
Silver Medal
Called up at the closing ceremony as a silver medallist, representing Türkiye.
12–17 July
The competition
Three rounds, three different skills.
The IEO doesn't only test what you know. It tests how you think, how you write and how you work with other people.
ROUND 1
INDIVIDUAL
Economics & finance test
40 multiple-choice questions covering micro, macro and finance, against the clock.
What it asked of me
Breadth and speed. Knowing a concept isn't enough when you have about a minute to apply it.
ROUND 2
INDIVIDUAL
Open-answer problems
Five written problems, four of them graded, where the reasoning matters as much as the answer.
What it asked of me
Showing my thinking step by step, the same way I'd defend a finding in a research paper.
ROUND 3
TEAM
Business case
A real-world case solved as a team and presented in English to a panel of judges. It carries a large share of the marks.
What it asked of me
Trusting teammates under time pressure. It felt a lot like captaining a team in the last two minutes of a close game.
On stage
IEOx Youth Talks.
After the exams, twelve students were chosen from all the applicants to give a short talk to the whole Olympiad. I was one of them.
I spoke about Add: the topic of the talk, in one line. I chose it because Add: why this idea mattered to you. Standing in front of around 400 people from almost sixty countries was more nerve-racking than any exam, and it's the part of the week I'm proudest of.
“Add: the strongest line from the talk”
What I took home
More than a medal.
The medal is the part people ask about but the part I think about most is how differently everyone in that room approached the same problem.
A student from one country would start with data, another with history, another with how people would actually react. Working next to them made me question my own first instincts, and that's changed how I approach my research and my writing since.
Applying theory quickly to problems I'd never seen before.
Building one answer out of five different ways of thinking.
Turning an idea into four minutes that a room of 400 people would follow.
Friends from almost every continent who care about the same questions I do.