Brazil's team wins three medals at the IMO.
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The most talented mathematics students from around the world were honored this Saturday (22) with the awarding of gold, silver and bronze medals won at the 58th International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), held for the first time in Brazil. Starting on the 17th, the IMO 2017 took place in Rio de Janeiro. This is the oldest and most prestigious scientific competition for high school students. South Korea won first place, followed by China and Vietnam.
Organized by the Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics (IMPA), the 2017 IMO had a record participation of 623 students from 111 countries across five continents. During these six days, Brazil was the focus of attention for the international mathematical community, comprised of millions of professionals, students, and enthusiasts.
South Korea came in first place, ending the hegemony of the United States and China, winners of the last four contests. China came in second, and Vietnam in third, leaving the US in fourth, and Iran in fifth.
Brazil won three medals and three honorable mentions at the 2017 IMO. João César Vargas, 19, and Davi Cavalcanti Sena, 17, won silver; George Lucas Alencar, 18, won bronze. André Yuji Hisatsuga, 17, Bruno Brasil Meinhart, 16, and Pedro Henrique Sacramento, 18, received honorable mentions.
National teams of up to six students dedicated two days to solving six challenging problems designed for the competition. According to the International Jury, this edition's test was one of the most difficult in the history of the IMO, which began in 1959 in Romania, the European country that will host next year's edition, the 59th.
Closing Ceremony
Like the opening ceremony, the closing ceremony was marked by celebration, music, and emotion. At the end, to the sound of the children's samba school Império do Futuro and the Projeto More choir, the approximately one thousand people who filled the auditorium of the Windsor Oceânico hotel, many of them wearing medals and carrying the flags of their countries, danced and had fun.
IMPA's Deputy Director, Cláudio Landim, thanked the Ministries of Education and Science, Technology, Innovation and Communications for their support, represented at the closing ceremony by their respective Deputy Executive Secretaries, Felipe Sigollo and Alfonso Orlandi Neto. Landim praised the official sponsorship of the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES). The manager of the Department of Education, Consumer Goods, Commerce and Services at BNDES, Job Rodrigues Teixeira Júnior, received a plaque from IMPA in gratitude for his support of IMO 2017.
"I hope that when you return to your countries, you will take a message of peace with you," said Landim, addressing the competitors.
Awards for women
The big news at this 58th edition of the International Mathematical Olympiad was the awarding of prizes to women. The five female competitors who contributed most to their countries' performance received the Girls' Olympic Trophy: Garam Park, from Botswana; Carolina Ortega Pérez, from Colombia; Qi Qi, from Canada; Violeta Naydenova, from Bulgaria; and Dain Kim, from South Korea.
The award, suggested by IMPA to encourage female participation in mathematical competitions, will be incorporated into future editions. The prize is also a tribute to Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani, winner of the Fields Medal and two gold medals at the IMO, who died on the 14th at the age of 40.
Brazilians
With his bags packed to study Mathematics at Princeton University in the United States, João César, from Minas Gerais, bids farewell to the IMO with honors: he won medals in his three participations: he had already won silver in 2016 and bronze in 2015. Born in Passa Tempo (MG) – where he studied in public school until elementary school – João is a seven-time champion in the OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematics Olympiad for Public Schools) and has two gold medals from the Brazilian Mathematics Olympiad (OBM).
Davi Sena, a silver medalist from Pernambuco, has won awards at the Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad (OBM) for three consecutive years. In 2016, he won bronze at the Iranian Advanced Geometry Olympiad and, this year, he brought home a gold medal from the Asia-Pacific Mathematical Olympiad. George Lucas Alencar, from Ceará, won bronze at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) for the second consecutive year. In 2016, he achieved the second-highest score in the country at the OBM and secured silver at the 31st Ibero-American Mathematical Olympiad in Chile.
The first IMO took place in 1959 in Romania, with seven countries from the socialist bloc. Brazil began its participation in the IMO in 1979 and won 25 medals and 32 honorable mentions. In 2016, it achieved its best ranking in the competition: 15th place, with five silver and one bronze medals.
The IMO 2017 is part of the 2017-2018 Brazilian Mathematics Biennium, which has the support of the Ministries of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communications and Education, and sponsorship from BNDES. Established in 2016, the Biennium brings together the main world events in the field – the IMO and the 2018 International Congress of Mathematicians – and actions to encourage the study of the discipline, popularize it, and promote activities that bring the public closer to mathematics.
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