U.S. TEAM CAPTURES GOLD AT GEOGRAPHIC OLYMPIAD

VANCOUVER—Beating teams from 11 other countries, students from the United States took the gold today (Aug. 2) at the fifth International Geographic Olympiad. The Canadian team came in second, and Hungary was third. The United States was the defending champion.

The U.S. team included captain Kyle Haddad-Fonda, 14, of Bellevue, Wash., Nicholas Jachowski, 14, of Pukalani, Hawaii, Steven Young, 14, of Reston, Va., and alternate Joe Henry Legan of Haughton, La.

The competition took place at the Chan Centre of the Performing Arts at the University of British Columbia. All three top teams were honored in an Olympic-style awards ceremony, receiving gold, silver and bronze medals from the National Geographic Society, sponsor of the Olympiad. Alex Trebek, host of the U.S. television quiz show Jeopardy!, moderated the finals.

The three teams qualified for the championship round after obtaining the highest combined scores in Wednesday’s two-part preliminary round. Team alternates participated in the preliminary round.

Students qualified for the Olympiad by winning or being a top-10 finisher in the national geography competitions of their home countries. The other teams that competed this year were from Argentina, Australia, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Romania, Russia, Singapore and the United Kingdom.

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