The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia represented by the King Abdulaziz and his Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity (Mawhiba) and the Ministry of Education, won four international awards (a silver medal and three bronze medals) at Ibn Sina International Biology Olympiad (AIBO 2024) in its first edition. It was organized by the State of Uzbekistan in the city of Bukhara during the period From June 9 to 14, 2024, with the participation of 120 students, representing 20 countries.

All four members of the Saudi team won 4 medals, including a silver medal and three bronze medals. The student Abdullah Al-Subaie from Taif Education Department won a silver medal; while the three bronze medals were won by: the student Samir Al-Najjar from Jeddah Education Administration, the student Zahraa Al-Aythan from the Eastern Province AL AHSAA Education Administration, and student Hassan Al-Bahar from Riyadh Education Administration.

The Secretary-General of Mawhiba Foundation, Dr. Amal Al-Hazza congratulated the winning students, their families, schools, and teachers on this achievement in the first Saudi participation in Ibn Sina International Biology Olympiad, which confirms the desire of gifted Saudis to excel. She praised the strategic and complementary partnership between Mawhiba Foundation and the Ministry of Education which aims at qualifying the gifted Saudis to participate in international Olympics and to ascend to the podium. She highlighted the shared visions that enhance the path to adopting the best practices in discovering, nurturing and empowering the gifted, in line with the goals and initiatives of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 to build a creative Saudi generation.

She explained that Saudi society is vibrant with talent, excellence and creativity, and it expects a lot from its gifted people thanks to their minds, abilities and talents; to contribute with their ideas and innovations to the process of construction, prosperity and development, and to keep pace with the Kingdom’s abundance of gifted and creative human energies in various fields.
The members of the Saudi team qualified to represent the Kingdom in Ibn Sina International Biology Olympiad after intensive training at the hands of national and international experts. This is achieved in a strategic partnership with the Ministry of Education, with a total number of training hours amounting to 2,800 hours for the student Samir Al-Najjar and the same for the student Abdullah Al-Subaie, and 2,500 training hours for the student Hassan Al-Bahar and the same for the student Zahraa Al-Aythan.

Ibn Sina International Biology Olympiad is an international competition targeting gifted high school students in the field of biology. The competition mechanism relies on a theoretical aspect which includes a number of innovative questions in all fields of biology which must be solved within 3 hours, and a practical aspect that includes two experiments performed by the student within 3 hours.

Ibn Sina International Biology Olympiad represents one of the competitions in which participation comes within Mawhiba Program for the International Olympiad; which is one of 19 programs implemented in "Mawhiba" for the discovered students in the "National Program for Gifted Identification". It aims at qualifying them for international participation, representing the Kingdom, and competing for international awards.