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Media Release –
July 27, 2021
Canadian Mathematical Society |
All Members of Math Team Canada Win Medals at the 2021 IMO

OTTAWA – Math Team Canada 2021 wins three Gold, and three Silver medals, placing 5th out of 107 participating countries. This is Canada’s best result in the history of Team Canada’s participation at the IMO. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 Olympiad took place virtually in Saint-Petersburg this year. The six team members competed separately, answering six grueling questions in a competition lasting two days, four and a half hours each day. More than 600 high school students competed at the 2021 IMO.
The Co-Chair of IMO committee, James Rickards rejoiced at the results: “The 2021 IMO was a great success for Canada. We received 3 gold medals for only the third time, and added 3 silver medals to the haul. The 5th place result matches the 2012 team for highest country ranking.” Rickards also notes that Canada contributed to the creation of the contest this year: “problem 2 was proposed by Canada’s Calvin Deng. Thank you to all the volunteers who helped coordinate Canada’s participation in this difficult year!”
For Robert Garbary, this year’s IMO observer, the result did not come as a surprise: “It was an incredible experience meeting the Canadian contestants. Their enthusiasm, passion, and mathematical maturity never ceased to amaze me over the last few weeks.”
CMS Executive Director, Termeh Kousha also congratulates Math Team Canada members : “We are all so proud of these young, talented and hardworking students. Thank you to trainers, volunteers, organisers and all those involved for making this an amazing year for our team.”
The team results are as follows:
- Eric Shen, University of Toronto Schools, Toronto, ON ─ Gold medal
- Thomas Guo [Markham, ON], Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH, USA – Gold medal
- Zixiang Zhou, London Central Secondary School, London, ON ─ Gold medal·
- Kevin Min, Cupertino High School, Cupertino, California – Silver medal
- Arvin Sahami, Richmond Hill World School, Richmond Hill, ON – Silver medal
- Warren Bei, Homeschooled, West Vancouver, BC – Silver medal
The team trained virtually and 4 out of 6 members wrote the competition at the University of Waterloo who acted as Canada’s IMO commissioner. The CMS would like to thank the University of Waterloo for housing and feeding the team and facilitating their participation. Special thanks to Jen Nelson who put in additional time to make sure the competition went well. Many thanks to team leaders, Alex Song and Dani Spivak, who were instrumental in the team’s success.
This year, Arvin Sahami is chosen as the Beatty Student. His participation at the IMO is sponsored by the Samuel Beatty Fund and he will be writing the Samuel Beatty IMO Report following the competition.
The 63rd International Mathematical Olympiad will take place next year in Oslo, Norway.
About the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO)
The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is the world championship high school mathematics competition. The IMO began in 1959 in Romania with seven participating countries. Math Team Canada expects to compete against the world’s best students from over 100 countries in the 63rd IMO. Canada has earned 39 gold, 61 silver, 94 bronze medals and 19 honourable mentions since first competing in 1981.
Canadian Math team Sponsors
The Canadian Mathematical Society is very grateful to the following sponsors for their support of Math Team Canada 2021:
University of Waterloo; York University; University of Toronto; NSERC PromoScience; The Casualty Actuarial Foundation; Aqueduct Foundation; the Samuel Beatty Fund; Centre de recherches mathématiques; the FIELDS Institute; the Government of Ontario; as well as individual donations from members and non-members of CMS.
About the Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS)
Founded in 1945, the CMS is the main national organization whose goal is to promote and advance the discovery, learning and application of mathematics. The Society’s activities cover the whole spectrum of mathematics including scientific meetings, publications, grants, math camps and national and international mathematics competitions, as well as awards and prizes that recognize outstanding achievements.
For more information please contact:
Dr. Termeh Kousha Executive Director Canadian Mathematical Society tkousha@cms.math.ca |
or | James Rickards (McGill) Chair, International Mathematical Olympiad Selection Committee Canadian Mathematical Society chair-imoc@cms.math.ca |