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2002 IMO, Scotland - US Press Release

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Mathematical Association of America -- American Mathematics Competitions

IMO

USA Ranks Third in International Mathematical Olympiad

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High School-Age Teams from China Rank #1, from Russia #2, and from USA #3

The 2002 International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), held in Glasgow, Scotland, July 29, 2002, attracted 479 of the best young mathematicians from 84 countries. The IMO is the world's preeminent mathematical competition for high school-age students. The participating students won a total of 39 gold medals, 73 silver, and 120 bronze medals for solving, in a grueling nine-hour test administered over July 24 and July 25, six math questions that would daunt even some professional mathematicians. Final results of the IMO are available on the web at http://www.imo2002.com. The US team is pictured below.

The American Mathematics Competitions, www.unl.edu/amc, a program of The Mathematical Association of America, is a series of challenging tests which culminate in the selection of the USA IMO team. Other major sponsors of the AMC and the USA-IMO team are the Akamai Foundation (http://www.akamai.com) and the University of Nebraska. The IMO team is chosen through a three-stage process of mathematics testing starting with almost half a million test-takers in middle school and high school.

The third place USA team ranked behind the first place team from China and the second ranked Russian team. Overall, the six members of the USA team won four gold medals, one silver medal and one honorable mention. Po-Ru Loh, of Madison, WI, distinguished himself by tying for second place in the total number of individual points by completely solving 5 of the 6 problems. Two Chinese students and a Russian tied for first place by correctly solving all six problems.

Tiankai Liu of Sartoga, CA, Ricky Liu of Newton, MA, and Daniel Kane of Madison, WI, also received gold medals. Anders Kaseorg of Charlotte, NC received a silver medal and Alex Xue of Chandler, AZ received an honorable mention. Adam MacBride, Academic Director of the IMO 2002, said, "This year's test was difficult, yet the students rose to the occasion. They met the challenge, and still managed to have a remarkable amount of fun in seeing Scotland."

For further information, contact:

Steven R. Dunbar
sdunbar@math.unl.edu, URL: http://www.math.unl.edu/~sdunbar URL: http://www.unl.edu/amc
Department of Mathematics and Statistics,
University of Nebraska - Lincoln,
Lincoln, NE, USA 68588-0323		 MAA Director of K-12 Programs,
MAA American Mathematics Competitions,
American Mathematics Competitions,
1740 Vine Street Lincoln, NE, USA 68588-0658
Voice: 402/472-7236, FAX: 402/472-8466 1-800-527-3690
Voice: 402/4722-6206 or FAX: 402/472-6087

2002 US IMO Team and coaches
The United States Olympic team: from left Zuming Feng, Coach, Ricky Liu, Tiankai Liu, Alex Xue, Anders Kaseorg, Po-Ru Loh, Daniel Kane, and Titu Andreescu, Coach.