International Mathematical Olympiad
The first IMO was held in 1959, hosted by Romania, with seven countries participating: Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany and the USSR. The number of participating countries has increased to more than a 100 countries from all continents. Countries take turns to organise the IMO.
The contestants must be less than 20 years old and must not have any post secondary school education. There is no limit to how many times a person may participate in the IMO. The usual size of an official delegation to an IMO is (a maximum of) six students, along with the leader and deputy leader. The student competitor writes two contest papers on consecutive days, with three problems on each day. Each question is worth seven marks.
The event starts with an opening ceremony and the contest takes place the following two days. Each contestant has to solve 3 problems within 4½ hours on each of the two days in his/her own language. After the contest, the leaders and deputy leaders evaluate the solutions of their contestants and hold coordination sessions in order to ensure that the marking has been done correctly and consistently. During this time, the participants enjoy a varied entertainment programme including excursions and games.
The last day is for the closing ceremony, and the gold, silver, and bronze medals will be awarded for excellent performances. The International Mathematical Olympiad is an individual competition. Medals are awarded to at most half of the participating students. Gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded in the ratio of 1:2:3, so that about 1/12 of the students obtain a gold medal, about 1/6 of the students obtain a silver medal and about 1/4 of the students obtain a bronze medal. In order to encourage more students, and to encourage students to solve complete problems, recent practice has awarded a certificate of honourable mention to any student (not receiving a medal) who obtained full marks for at least one problem.
For more information about the IMO and South Africa's performance visit their website: www.imo-official.org
South Africa has taken part in the IMO every year since 1992. Performance of the South African team since 2010:
| Year | Position | Team | Award |
| 2024 | 53 |
Dylan Nelson (Team Leader), Kerry Porrill (Deputy Team Leader), Ben Maree, Ellen Grant-Smith, Moied Baleg, Yian Xu, Eli Williams, Youkyum Kim
|
One Silver and two Bronze medals One Honourable Mentions
|
| 2023 | 51 |
Liam Baker (Team Leader), Malwande Nkonyane (Deputy Team Leader), Moied Baleg, Hugo Bruwer, Minkyum Kim, Youkyum Kim, Jared Slater and Yian Xu |
One Silver and one Bronze medal Four Honourable Mentions |
| 2022 | 63 |
Liam Baker (Team Leader), Phil Labuschange (Deputy Team Leader), Juliette Roux, Emmanuel Rassou, Minkyum Kim, Youkyum Kim, Benjamin Kleyn and Alex Sinclair-Smith |
6 honourable mentions |
| 2021 | 60 |
Liam Baker (Team Leader), Phil Labuschange (Deputy Team Leader), Kerry Porrill, Juliette Roux, Yi Lou, Emmanuel Rassou, Minkyum Kim and Tyrone Kasi
|
3 bronze medals and 1 honourable mentions |
| 2020 | 61 | Liam Baker (Team Leader), Phil Labuschagne (Deputy Team Leader), Kgaogelo Bopape, Kerry Porrill, Andi Qu, Emmanuel Rassou, Juliette Roux, Jean Weight | 3 bronze medals and 3 honourable mentions |
| 2019 | 46 | Liam Baker (Team Leader), Phil Labuschange (Deputy Team Leader), Taariq Mowzer, Aaron Naidu, Emil van der Walt, Adri Wessels, Kgaogelo Bopape, Andi Qu | 4 bronze medals, 2 honourable mentions |
| 2018 | 62 | Liam Baker (Team Leader), Phil Labuschange (Deputy Team Leader), Taariq Mowzer, Adri Wessels, Tim Schlesinger, Emil van der Walt, Ralph McDougall and Emile Tredoux. | 1 bronze medals, 4 honourable mentions |
| 2017 | 60 | Liam Baker (Team Leader), Phil Labuschange (Deputy Team Leader), Taariq Mowzer, Adri Wessels, Tim Schlesinger, Emil van der Walt, Ralph McDougall and Aaron Naidu. | 2 bronze medals and 4 honourable mentions |
| 2016 | 57 | Dr Dirk Basson(Team Leader), Phil Labuschange (Deputy Team Leader), Nicholas Kroon, Andrew McGregor, Mohammed Yaseen Mowzer, Sanjiv Ranchod, Bronson Rudner and David Broodryk. | 1 bronze medal and 4 honourable mentions |
| 2015 | 55 | Dr Dirk Basson(Team Leader), Melissa Kistner (Deputy eam Leader), Nicholas Kroon, Andrew McGregor, Mohammed Yaseen Mowzer, Sanjiv Ranchod, Bronson Rudner and David Broodryk. | 1 bronze medal and 2 honourable mentions |
| 2014 | 64 | Dr Dirk Basson(Team Leader), Melissa Kistner (Deputy Team Leader), Nashlen Govindasamy, Yaseen Mowzer, Tae Jun Park, Sanjiv Ranchod, Bronson Rudner, and Robin Visser | 1 bronze medal and 4 honourable mentions |
| 2013 | 58 | Jay van Zyl (Team Leader), Dr Dirk Basson (Deputy Team Leader), Shaylan Lalloo, Robin Visser, Nashlen Govindasamy, Lauren Denny, Andrew McGregor and Bronson Rudner | 2 bronze medals and 3 honourable mentions |
| 2012 | 56 | Maciek Stankiewicz (Team Leader), Dr Jay van Zyl (Deputy Team Leader), Dylan Nelson, Robert Spencer, Junho Son, Robin Visser, Dalian Sunder and Mickey Chew | 2 bronze medals and 3 honourable mentions |
| 2011 | 41 | Prof Stephan Wagner (Team Leader), Dr Koos van Zyl (Deputy Team Leader), Sean Wentzel,Kira Düsterwald, Ashraf Moolla, Dylan Nelson, Robert Spencer and Dalian Sunder | 1 silver medal, 2 bronze medals as well as 2 honourable mentions. |
| 2010 | 58 | Mr David Hatton (Team Leader), Mr Maciej Stankiewicz (Deputy Team Leader), Sean Wentzel, Greg Jackson, Desislava Nikolov, Steve Bailey, Ashraf Moolla and Dylan Nelson. | 2 bronze medals and 4 honourable mentions |
B