International Mathematical Olympiad - Notable Achievements

Notable Achievements

See also: List of International Mathematical Olympiad participants

Five nations have achieved an all-members-gold IMO with a full team:

  • China, 11 times: in 1992, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2010, and 2011;
  • Russia, 2 times: in 2002 and 2008;
  • United States, 2 times: in 1994 and 2011;
  • South Korea, 1 time: in 2012;
  • Bulgaria, 1 time: in 2003.

The only country to have their entire teams score perfectly on the IMO were the United States, which won IMO 1994 when it accomplished this, coached by Paul Zeitz, and Luxembourg, whose 1-member team got a perfect score in IMO 1981. The USA's success earned a mention in TIME Magazine. Hungary won IMO 1975 in an unorthodox way when none of the eight team members received a gold medal (five silver, three bronze). Second place team East Germany also did not have a single gold medal winner (four silver, four bronze).

Several individuals have consistently scored highly and/or earned medals on the IMO: Reid Barton (United States) was the first participant to win a gold medal four times (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001). Barton is also one of only seven four-time Putnam Fellow (2001, 2002, 2003, 2004). In addition, he is the only person to have won both the IMO and the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI). Christian Reiher and Lisa Sauermann (both Germany) and Teodor von Burg (Serbia) are the only other participants to have won four gold medals (2000-2003 resp. 2008-2011 resp. 2009-2012); Sauermann also received a silver medal (2007) and Reiher a bronze medal (1999), von Burg received a silver medal (2008) and a bronze medal (2007). Wolfgang Burmeister (East Germany), Martin Härterich (West Germany), Iurie Boreico (Moldova) and Teodor von Burg (Serbia) are the only other participants besides Reiher and Sauermann to win five Medals with at least three of them gold. Ciprian Manolescu (Romania) managed to write a perfect paper (42 points) for gold medal more times than anybody else in history of competition, doing it all three times he participated in the IMO (1995, 1996, 1997). Manolescu is also a three-time Putnam Fellow (1997, 1998, 2000). Evgenia Malinnikova (Soviet Union) is the highest-scoring female contestant in IMO history. She has 3 gold medals in IMO 1989 (41 points), IMO 1990 (42) and IMO 1991 (42), missing only 1 point in 1989 to precede Manolescu's achievement.

Terence Tao (Australia) participated in IMO 1986, 1987 and 1988, winning bronze, silver and gold medals respectively. He won a gold medal when he just turned thirteen in IMO 1988, becoming the youngest person to receive a gold medal. Tao also holds the distinction of being the youngest medalist with his 1986 bronze medal, alongside 2009 bronze medalist Raúl Chávez Sarmiento (Peru), at the age of 10 and 11 respectively. Representing the United States, Noam Elkies won a gold medal with a perfect paper at the age of 14 in 1981. Note that both Elkies and Tao could have participated in the IMO multiple times following their success, but entered university and therefore became ineligible.

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