CANADA WINS ONE GOLD, TWO SILVER AND TWO BRONZE MEDALS AT THE 46TH MATHEMATICAL OLYMPIAD IN MÉRIDA, MEXICO.

[Graham Wright]

For release: IMMEDIATE (July 19, 2005)

CANADA WINS ONE GOLD, TWO SILVER AND TWO BRONZE MEDALS AT THE 46TH 
MATHEMATICAL OLYMPIAD IN MÉRIDA, MEXICO.

Competing against students from 90 other countries, Canadian high 
school students have done extremely well winning one Gold Medal, two 
silver, and two Bronze Medals at the 46th International Mathematical 
Olympiad (IMO) Mérida, Mexico, from July 8 -19, 2005.

The six students who competed for Canada were: Lin Fei, Don Mills 
Collegiate Institute, Toronto (Ontario); Elyot Grant, Cameron Heights 
Collegiate Institute, Kitchener (Ontario); Yang (Richard) Peng, 
Vaughan Road Academy, Toronto (Ontario); Dong Uk (David) Rhee, McNally 
High School, Edmonton (Alberta); Peng Shi, Sir John A. MacDonald 
Collegiate Institute, Toronto (Ontario); and Yufei Zhao, Don Mills 
Collegiate Institute, Toronto (Ontario).

The team was accompanied by the Team Leader, Dr. Felix Recio 
(University of Toronto), the Deputy Team Leader, Dr. Dorette Pronk 
(Dalhousie University), and the Deputy Leader Observer, Mr. Adrian 
Tang (University of Calgary).

Although the closing ceremony, scheduled for July 18th, had to be 
cancelled due to Hurricane Emily, a Gold Medal was awarded to Yufei 
Zhao; Silver Medals to Yang (Richard) Peng and Peng Shi, and Bronze 
Medals to Elyot Grant and Donk Uk (David) Rhee.

"Our young team performed exceptionally well in the competition and 
were excellent ambassadors for Canada in dealing with the conditions 
from Hurricane Emily. I am very proud of all of them," said Dr. Recio.

"The IMO is the world championship high school mathematics 
competition. All six problems were very difficult and all of the 
Canadian students have done remarkably well. They have all 
demonstrated the problem solving skills, knowledge and creativity that 
is essential 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 19th out of 91 competing countries with a score of 132.

Since 1981, Canadian students have received a total of 16 gold, 29 
silver, and 57 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 46th IMO, the team trained at the University of 
Calgary and at the Banff International Research Station (BIRS) from 
June 25th to July 10th, 2005.

The 2005 IMO contest was set by an international jury of 
mathematicians, one from each country, and was written on Wednesday 
July 13th and Thursday July 14th. On each day of the contest, three 
questions had to be solved within a time limit of four and one-half 
hours. Team members must be less than 20 years old when they write the 
IMO.

The top 10 teams and their scores are: China (235); USA (213); Russia 
(212); Iran (201); Korea (200); Romania (191); Taiwan (190); Japan 
(188); Hungary (181); Ukraine (181).

The team will be returning to Canada today (July 19th), arriving at 
Pearson International Airport (Terminal 1) on Air Canada flight 992 at 
7:40 PM.

Sponsors of the 2005 Canadian IMO team include: the Canadian 
Mathematical Society; NSERC PromoScience; the Ontario Ministry of 
Education; Alberta Learning; Nova Scotia Department of Education; the 
Newfoundland and Labrador Ministry of Education; the Quebec Ministry 
of Education; the Northwest Territories Ministry of Education; the 
Saskatchewan Ministry of Education; Sun Life Financial; the Samuel 
Beatty Fund; Maplesoft; Centre de recherches mathématiques; the Fields 
Institute; the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences; the 
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Calgary; the 
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of New Brunswick 
at Fredericton; the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, 
University of Ottawa; le département de mathématiques, Université du 
Québec à Montréal; the Department of Mathematics, University of 
Toronto; the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing, 
University of Waterloo; the Department of Mathematics, Wilfrid Laurier 
University; the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University 
of Winnipeg; the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, York 
University; and the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, 
Dalhousie University.

The 47th International Mathematical Olympiad will take place in 
Ljubljana, Slovenia, from July 6 to 18, 2006.

For more information, contact:

Dr. Graham P. Wright
Executive Director
Canadian Mathematical Society
(613) 290-3046 (Cell)
(613) 562-5702 (CMS Office)
director at cms.math.ca
www.cms.math.ca/Competitions/