Young Aussie team receive medals at International Maths Olympiad

Each of the six-member Australian student team is coming home a winner from the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO). The IMO was held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where 101 countries competed from 16-24 July.

The team won three silver medals and three bronze medals. Timothy Large of Sydney Grammar School, Declan Gorey of Sydney Boys High School and Yanning Xu of St Peter’s College in Adelaide won the silver. Angel Yu of Perth Modern School, Colin Lu of Melbourne Grammar School and Nancy Fu of James Ruse Agricultural High School in Sydney took out the bronze.

The team was placed equal 25th, tying with Hungary and Serbia. They also performed well the week before at Cambridge where they tied with Great Britain in the annual Mathematics Ashes, a traditional contest undertaken during pre-IMO training.

The UNESCO-sanctioned IMO is the pinnacle of competition between students of pre-university level from around the world and the premier international competition in mathematics for secondary school students globally. It first began in 1959 and is the oldest and largest of the Olympiads. Australia has entered for the past 30 years.

Professor Peter Taylor, Executive Director of the not-for-profit Australian Mathematics Trust, which is responsible for all aspects of Australia’s participation in the Olympiad program, paid tribute to the students, Director of Training Dr Angelo Di Pasquale, leading trainers Ivan Guo (himself a former IMO Gold Medallist) and a large team of former IMO students who train the teams on a voluntary basis. “We have a large infrastructure of people acting in goodwill who are very generously transferring their knowledge to the next generations,” he said.

Professor Taylor added that this event is just part of a larger program run by the Trust which hundreds of thousands of students participate in and benefit from, starting at the Australian Mathematics Competition and continuing through the Mathematics Challenge for Young Australians and its enrichment stage, helping students of all standards to achieve their potential in mathematics.

The Australian Government provides considerable support through the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (DIISR) and Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR). The Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers and the Australian Mathematical Society also provide support.