We’re a bit late on this one but it’s still of interest: the 53rd International Mathematical Olympiad took place in Mar Del Plata, Argentina a couple of weeks ago. The event was hosted by the University of Buenos Aires together with the Argentine National Ministries of Education and of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation.
No fuss was made on the IMO’s official site after the event apart from the addition of a column to the results table. The top three countries were South Korea, China and the USA, with the UK coming 23rd, still ahead of Germany and France, in 31st and 39th places, respectively.
The top individual score was earned by Jek Lim of Singapore, who managed a perfect tally of 42 across the six rounds of the competition. Thanks to the ideals of the Olympiad, however, Master Lim was awarded the same gold medal as the other 50 contestants making up the top twelfth-ish of the leaderboard.
The Olympiad hasn’t been widely reported in the media here, as far as I can tell. Unafraid to use a cliché, the MAA laments that everyone else appreciates maths more than the US, pointing to several English-language reports of the event in foreign newspapers.
The problems from this year and all 52 previous events are available to view online in a variety of languages, to be perused perhaps while listening to the glorious Hymn of the International Mathematical Olympiad.
Next year’s Olympiad will take place in Santa Marta, Colombia from the 18th to the 28th of July.
More information: International Mathematical Olympiad