02/02/2018

Maceió becomes the capital of Mathematics during Olympic Week.

Between January 2Mondays and 28th, the city of Maceió (AL) hosted the 21st Olympic Week. Organized by the Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics (IMPA) and the Brazilian Mathematical Society (SBM), the event brought together 101 award winners from the 39th Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad (OBM). Approximately 30 students from Alagoas, authorized by the OBM, also participated.

Hailing from 12 different states, the students participated in intensive training—classes, study sessions, and exams—with 23 instructors. Among the instructors was George Lucas Diniz, a member of the Brazilian team at the 2017 IMO and a bronze medalist.

Those interested participated in tests to join the Brazilian team for international competitions. On January 2Wednesdays, the students took the test that determined the team that will represent Brazil at the European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO), held in Florence, Italy, from April 9th to 1Thursdays of this year.

The selected participants were Ana Beatriz Cavalcante Pires de Castro Studart, from Fortaleza (CE); Mariana Quirino de Oliveira, from Brasília (DF); Débora Tami Yamato, from São Paulo (SP); and Mariana Bigolin Groff, from Frederico Westphalen (RS). The team will be led by Ana Karoline Borges Carneiro and vice-led by Luíze Mello D'Urso Vianna, both from Rio de Janeiro.

On the same day, girls and boys took the first selection test for the team that will represent Brazil at the Southern Cone and Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) Olympics. The next selection rounds for the competitions will take place on March Tuesdays and April 7th.

More than just studying

One of the goals of Olympic Week is to offer award winners the opportunity to exchange knowledge and make friends with young people who share an interest in mathematics. After classes, they were able to participate in games, show off their artistic talents at a karaoke session, and enjoy a pop-rock band performance that livened up the evening for the group passionate about mathematics.

Following tradition, on the last day of training it was the coaches' turn to be tested in what's called the Olympic Revenge, a name given to the test devised by medalists to challenge the coaches.

The teachers spent the night racking their brains to deal with the students' "revenge." This year's participants were Deborah Alves, Armando Barbosa, Felipe Gabriel, André Macieira, Victor Suzuki, Thiago Landim, Andrey Chen, Carlos Gustavo Moreira (Gugu), Daniel Bossle, Davi Lopes, Ian Matheus, Thiago Tergolino, and Rafael Filipe.
Gugu was the last teacher to leave the exam room in the early hours of the following day, at 5 am. And, as tradition dictates, he once again took home the gold medal. The novelty was the unprecedented silver medal won by Davi Lopes, who had narrowly missed out in previous years by winning bronze.

Awards ceremony

The awards ceremony took place on Saturday (27). On the occasion, Brazil's international achievements in the previous year were also remembered, such as the two silver and bronze medals at the IMO 2017, held in Rio de Janeiro, the two bronze medals in the debut of the Brazilian team at the EGMO and the bronze medal at the Romanian Master of Mathematics, among others.

The teachers who participated in the Olympic Revenge learned the results at the ceremony and also received their awards. Check out the complete results of the Olympic Revenge here .

All the course materials — levels 1, 2, 3 and university level — and the questions from the Revenge section of the 21st Olympic Week are available on the OBM website .

Watch the report from TV Gazeta, an affiliate of TV Globo in Alagoas, about the event: