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The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is an annual international high school mathematics competition focused primarily on pre-collegiate mathematics, and is the oldest of the international science olympiads. The awards for exceptional performance include medals for roughly the top half participants, and honorable mentions for participants who solve at least one problem perfectly.
This is a list of participants who have achieved notability. This includes participants that went on to become notable mathematicians, participants who won medals at an exceptionally young age, or participants who scored highly.
Exceptionally young medalists
Name | Team(s) | Year | Awards | Age (on final day of IMO) |
---|---|---|---|---|
Terence Tao | Australia | 1986 | Bronze | 10 years, 363 days |
Raúl Chávez Sarmiento | Peru | 2009 | Bronze | 11 years, 271 days |
Terence Tao | Australia | 1987 | Silver | 11 years, 364 days |
Alex Chui | Hong Kong | 2020 | Silver | 12 years, 156 days |
Akshay Venkatesh | Australia | 1994 | Bronze | 12 years, 241 days |
Yeoh Zi Song | Malaysia | 2014 | Bronze | 12 years, 245 days |
Raúl Chávez Sarmiento | Peru | 2010 | Silver | 12 years, 263 days |
Terence Tao | Australia | 1988 | Gold | 13 years, 4 days |
Warren Bei | Canada | 2021 | Silver | 13 years, 78 days |
Alex Chui | Hong Kong | 2021 | Gold | 13 years, 90 days |
Damjan Davkov | North Macedonia | 2021 | Silver | 13 years, 199 days |
Jeremy Kahn | United States | 1983 | Silver | 13 years, 259 days |
Raúl Chávez Sarmiento | Peru | 2011 | Gold | 13 years, 273 days |
Pawel Kröger | East Germany | 1972 | Perfect Score | 13 years, 354 days |
Pasin Manurangsi | Thailand | 2007 | Silver | 13 years, 359 days |
Warren Bei | Canada | 2022 | Gold | 14 years, 66 days |
Ömer Cerrahoğlu | Romania | 2009 | Gold | 14 years, 80 days |
Pipitchaya Sridam | Thailand | 2021 | Gold | 14 years, 136 days |
William Cheah | Australia | 2023 | Silver | 14 years, 181 days |
Damjan Davkov | North Macedonia | 2022 | Silver | 14 years, 187 days |
Harvey Yau | United Kingdom | 2014 | Silver | 14 years, 190 days |
Jeremy Kahn | United States | 1984 | Silver | 14 years, 258 days |
Lisa Sauermann | Germany | 2007 | Silver | 14 years, 309 days |
Noam Elkies | United States | 1981 | Perfect Score | 14 years, 329 days |
Pasin Manurangsi | Thailand | 2008 | Gold | 14 years, 351 days |
Aleksandr Khazanov | United States | 1994 | Perfect Score | 15 years, 77 days |
Sergei Konyagin | Soviet Union | 1972 | Perfect Score | 15 years, 83 days |
Ethan Yong-Ern Tan | Australia | 2018 | Gold | 15 years, 125 days |
Simon P. Norton | United Kingdom | 1967 | Gold | 15 years, 135 days |
Vladimir Drinfeld | Soviet Union | 1969 | Perfect Score | 15 years, 156 days |
Damjan Davkov | North Macedonia | 2023 | Gold | 15 years, 184 days |
Yuliy Sannikov | Ukraine | 1994 | Perfect Score | 15 years, 259 days |
Yang Yihan | Singapore | 2024 | Gold | 15 years, 271 days |
High-scoring participants
The following table lists all IMO Winners who have won at least three gold medals, with corresponding years and non-gold medals received noted (P denotes a perfect score.)
Name | Team(s) | Years | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Zhuo Qun Song | Canada | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 P |
Teodor von Burg | Serbia | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 |
Lisa Sauermann | Germany | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 P | |
Nipun Pitimanaaree | Thailand | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | |
Christian Reiher | Germany | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | |
Luke Robitaille | United States | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | ||
Reid W. Barton | United States | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 P | ||
Alex Chui | Hong Kong ('20, '21) United Kingdom ('22, '23, '24) |
2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
Wolfgang Burmeister | East Germany | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 P | 1971 | |
Iurie Boreico | Moldova | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 P | 2006 P | 2007 | |
Lim Jeck | Singapore | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 P | 2013 | |
Martin Härterich | West Germany | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 P | 1988 | 1989 | |
László Lovász | Hungary | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 P | 1966 P | ||
József Pelikán [hu] | Hungary | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 P | ||
Nikolay Nikolov | Bulgaria | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 P | ||
Kentaro Nagao | Japan | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | ||
Vladimir Barzov | Bulgaria | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | ||
Peter Scholze | Germany | 2004 | 2005 P | 2006 | 2007 | ||
Pranjal Srivastava | India | 2018 | 2019 | 2021 | 2022 | ||
Makoto Soejima | Japan | 2005 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 P | ||
Alex Gunning | Australia | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 P | 2015 | ||
Andrew Carlotti | United Kingdom | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | ||
Simon Norton | United Kingdom | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 P | |||
John Rickard | United Kingdom | 1975 P | 1976 | 1977 P | |||
Sergei Ivanov | Soviet Union | 1987 P | 1988 | 1989 P | |||
Theodor Banica | Romania | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | |||
Eugenia Malinnikova | Soviet Union | 1989 | 1990 P | 1991 P | |||
Sergey Norin | Russia | 1994 P | 1995 P | 1996 | |||
Yuliy Sannikov | Ukraine | 1994 P | 1995 | 1996 | |||
Ciprian Manolescu | Romania | 1995 P | 1996 P | 1997 P | |||
Ivan Ivanov | Bulgaria | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | |||
Nikolai Dourov | Russia | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | |||
Tamás Terpai | Hungary | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | |||
Stefan Hornet | Romania | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | |||
Vladimir Dremov | Russia | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | |||
Mihai Manea | Romania | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | |||
Tiankai Liu | United States | 2001 | 2002 | 2004 | |||
Oleg Golberg | Russia ('02, '03) United States ('04) |
2002 | 2003 | 2004 | |||
Béla András Rácz | Hungary | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 P | |||
Andrey Badzyan | Russia | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 P | |||
Rosen Kralev | Bulgaria | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 P | |||
Przemysław Mazur | Poland | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | |||
Tak Wing Ching | Hong Kong | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | |||
Chung Song Hong | North Korea | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | |||
Dong Ryul Kim | South Korea | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | |||
Allen Liu | United States | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 P | |||
Sheldon Kieren Tan | Singapore | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
Notable participants
A number of IMO participants have gone on to become notable mathematicians. The following IMO participants have either received a Fields Medal, an Abel Prize, a Wolf Prize or a Clay Research Award, awards which recognise groundbreaking research in mathematics; a European Mathematical Society Prize, an award which recognizes young researchers; or one of the American Mathematical Society's awards (a Blumenthal Award in Pure Mathematics, Bôcher Memorial Prize in Analysis, Cole Prize in Algebra, Cole Prize in Number Theory, Fulkerson Prize in Discrete Mathematics, Steele Prize in Mathematics, or Veblen Prize in Geometry and Topology) recognizing research in specific mathematical fields. Grigori Perelman proved the Poincaré conjecture (one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems), and Yuri Matiyasevich gave a negative solution of Hilbert's tenth problem.
G denotes an IMO gold medal, S denotes a silver medal, B denotes a bronze medal, and P denotes a perfect score.
Name | Team | IMO | Fields Medal | Wolf Prize | EMS Prize | AMS research prizes | Clay Award | Abel Prize |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Grigory Margulis | Soviet Union | S 1962 | 1978 | 2005 | 2020 | |||
George Lusztig | Romania | S 1963, S 1962 | 1985 (Cole algebra) | |||||
Henryk Iwaniec | Poland | S 1966, 1965 | 2002 (Cole number theory) | |||||
László Lovász | Hungary | P 1966, P 1965, G 1964, S 1963 | 1999 | 1982, 2012 (Fulkerson) | 2021 | |||
Andrei Suslin | Soviet Union | G 1967 | 2000 (Cole algebra) | |||||
János Pintz | Hungary | B 1969, P 1968,B 1967 | 2014 (Cole number theory) | |||||
Vladimir Drinfeld | Soviet Union | P 1969 | 1990 | 2018 | ||||
Andrei Zelevinsky | Soviet Union | S 1969 | 2018 (Steele) | |||||
Alexander Merkurjev | Soviet Union | S 1972 | 2012 (Cole algebra) | |||||
Pierre-Louis Lions | France | 1973 | 1994 | |||||
János Kollár | Hungary | P 1974, G 1973 | 2006 (Cole algebra) | |||||
Jean-Christophe Yoccoz | France | P 1974, S 1973 | 1994 | |||||
Sergey Fomin | Soviet Union | S 1974 | 2018 (Steele) | |||||
Paul Vojta | United States | P 1975 | 1992 (Cole number theory) | |||||
Alexander Goncharov | Soviet Union | G 1976 | 1992 | |||||
Richard Borcherds | United Kingdom | G 1978, S 1977 | 1998 | 1992 | ||||
Timothy Gowers | United Kingdom | P 1981 | 1998 | 1996 | ||||
Peter Kronheimer | United Kingdom | S 1981 | 2007 (Veblen) | |||||
Michel Goemans | Belgium | 1981, 1982 | 2000 (Fulkerson) | |||||
Gábor Tardos | Hungary | S 1982, S 1981, 1979 | 1992 | |||||
Grigori Perelman | Soviet Union | P 1982 | 2006 | 1996 | ||||
Alexis Bonnet | France | S 1984, S 1983 | 1996 | |||||
Laurent Lafforgue | France | S 1985, S 1984 | 2002 | 2000 | ||||
Daniel Tătaru | Romania | P 1985, P 1984 | 2002 (Bôcher) | |||||
Zoltán Szabó | Hungary | S 1985 | 2007 (Veblen) | |||||
Jeremy Kahn | United States | G 1986, G 1985, S 1984, S 1983 | 2012 | |||||
Ricardo Pérez-Marco | Spain | S 1986, 1985 | 1996 | |||||
Dominic Joyce | United Kingdom | S 1986 | 2000 | |||||
Stanislav Smirnov | Soviet Union | P 1987, P 1986 | 2010 | 2004 | 2001 | |||
Terence Tao | Australia | G 1988, S 1987, B 1986 | 2006 | 2002 (Bôcher) | 2003 | |||
Elon Lindenstrauss | Israel | B 1988 | 2010 | 2004 | 2001 (Blumenthal) | |||
Ngô Bảo Châu | Vietnam | G 1989, P 1988 | 2010 | 2004 | ||||
Emmanuel Grenier | France | B 1989 | 2000 | |||||
Vincent Lafforgue | France | P 1991, P 1990 | 2000 | |||||
Eugenia Malinnikova | Soviet Union | P 1991, P 1990, G 1989 | 2017 | |||||
Akshay Venkatesh | Australia | B 1994 | 2018 | |||||
Artur Avila | Brazil | G 1995 | 2014 | 2008 | ||||
Emmanuel Breuillard | France | G 1995 | 2012 | |||||
Ben J. Green | United Kingdom | S 1995, S 1994 | 2008 | 2004 | ||||
Maryam Mirzakhani | Iran | P 1995, G 1994 | 2014 | 2009 (Blumenthal) | 2014 | |||
Boáz Klartag | Israel | S 1996 | 2008 | |||||
Ciprian Manolescu | Romania | P 1997, P 1996, P 1995 | 2012 | |||||
Adrian Ioana | Romania | S 1999 | 2012 | |||||
Mark Braverman | Israel | G 2000, B 1999, B 1998 | 2016 | |||||
Ana Caraiani | Romania | G 2003, G 2002, S 2001 | 2020 | |||||
Kaisa Matomäki | Finland | 2003, 2002 | 2020 | |||||
Simion Filip | Moldova | S 2005, B 2004 | 2020 | |||||
Peter Scholze | Germany | G 2007, G 2006, P 2005, S 2004 | 2018 | 2016 | 2015 (Cole algebra) | 2014 |
IMO medalists have also gone on to become notable computer scientists. The following IMO medalists have received a Nevanlinna Prize, a Knuth Prize, or a Gödel Prize; these awards recognise research in theoretical computer science. G denotes an IMO gold medal, S denotes a silver medal, B denotes a bronze medal, and P denotes a perfect score.
Name | Team | IMO | Nevanlinna Prize | Knuth Prize | Gödel Prize |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
László Lovász | Hungary | P 1966, P 1965, G 1964, S 1963 | 1999 | 2001 | |
László Babai | Hungary | P 1968, S 1967, S 1966 | 2015 | 1993 | |
Johan Håstad | Sweden | G 1977 | 1994, 2011 | ||
Peter Shor | United States | S 1977 | 1998 | 1999 | |
Alexander Razborov | Soviet Union | G 1979 | 1990 | 2007 | |
Subhash Khot | India | S 1995, S 1994 | 2014 |
See also
- Provincial Mathematical Olympiad
- List of mathematics competitions
- List of International Mathematical Olympiads
Notes
- "International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO)".
- "47th International Mathematical Olympiad Results".
- Perelman was awarded a Fields Medal for his proof of the Poincaré conjecture, but he declined the Medal.
- Perelman was awarded an EMS prize for his proof of the Soul theorem, but he declined the prize.
References
- Olson, Steve (2004). Count Down: Six Kids Vie for Glory at the World's Toughest Math Competition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-618-25141-3.
- Lord, Mary (2001). "Michael Jordans of Math". U.S. News & World Report.