July 25, 2000
CANADA WINS ONE GOLD, TWO SILVER AND ONE BRONZE AT THE 2000 INTERNATIONAL MATHEMATICAL OLYMPIAD IN KOREA
Competing against students from 81 other countries, Canadian high school students have won a gold, two silver and one bronze medal at the 41st International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), Seoul, Republic of Korea, July 13-25, 2000. David Arthur (Upper Canada College, Toronto) placed seventh in the world out of 461 students.
The six members of the 2000 Canadian IMO team are: David Arthur, Upper Canada College, Toronto, Ontario; Daniel Brox, Sentinel Secondary School, Vancouver, British Columbia; Denise Cheung, Albert Campbell Collegiate Institute, Toronto, Ontario; Keon Choi, A.Y. Jackson Secondary School, Toronto, Ontario; David Goodman, Kelvin High School, Winnipeg, Manitoba; David Pritchard, Woburn Collegiate Institute, Toronto, Ontario
At the Awards Ceremony (July 24, 2000) in Seoul, Korea, a Gold Medal was awarded to David Arthur, Silver Medals to Daniel Brox and David Pritchard and a Bronze Medal to Keon Choi. Denise Cheung received an Honourable Mention.
"The IMO is the world championship high school mathematics competition. The problems were very difficult and all six students have done extremely well and demonstrated the critical problem solving skills, knowledge and creativity required to compete at this very high level," said Dr. Graham Wright, Executive Director of the Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS), the organization responsible for the selection and training of Canada's IMO team.
Although students compete individually, country rankings are obtained by adding the team's scores. The maximum score for each student is 42 and for a team of six students the maximum is 252. The Canadian team placed 17th out of 82 competing countries with a score of 112.
The top 10 teams and their scores are: China (218), Russia (215), United States (184), Republic of Korea (172), Vietnam (169), Bulgaria (169), Belarus (165), Chinese Taipei (164), Hungary (156), Iran (155).
David Arthur, Daniel Brox, David Goodman and David Pritchard return to Canada today. Denise Cheung and Keon Choi will return later this summer after holidaying with family in the Far East.
Since 1981, Canadian students have received a total of 10 gold, 24 silver, and 44 bronze medals. The six members of the Canadian IMO team were selected from among more than 200,000 students who participated in local, provincial and national mathematics contests. Prior to leaving for the 41st IMO, the team trained at the Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia from June 30th to July 15th .
The Canadian team members, who must be less than 20 years old when they write the IMO competition, pitted their skills against 461 of the world's best students. The 2000 IMO contest was set by an international jury of mathematicians, one from each country, and was written on Wednesday, July 19 and Thursday, July 20, 2000. On each day of the contest, there are three questions to be solved with a time limit of four and one-half hours. "It is similar to the Olympic decathlon but with six rather than ten components," commented Wright.
The 2000 Team Leader was Dr. Andrew Liu (University of Alberta) and the Deputy Team Leader was Dr. Christopher Small (University of Waterloo). Ms. Viktoria Mineva (Alberta International College), was the Deputy Leader Observer.
"Our team members were excellent ambassadors for Canada in Korea," said Dr. Liu. "I am very proud of their outstanding performance at this year's IMO."
Sponsors of the 2000 Canadian team include: the Ontario Ministry of Education; the Quebec Ministry of Education; Alberta Learning; the Canadian Mathematical Society; Sun Life Financial; the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences; the Fields Institute for Research in the Mathematical Sciences; the Samuel Beatty Fund; the Department of Mathematics, Simon Fraser University, the Department of Mathematics, University of New Brunswick at Fredericton; the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Calgary; the Department of Mathematics, University of Toronto; the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Ottawa and the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing, University of Waterloo.
The 42nd International Mathematical Olympiad will take place in Washington, DC, USA in July 2001.
For more information, contact:
Dr. Graham P. Wright
Canadian Mathematical Society
(613) 562-5702 (Office)
(613) 290-3046 (Cellular)
director@cms.math.ca
