The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is an annual international high school mathematics competition focused primarily on pre-collegiate mathematics, and is the oldest of the international science olympiads.[1] The awards for exceptional performance include medals for roughly the top half participants, and honorable mentions for participants who solve at least one problem perfectly.[2]
This is a list of participants who have achieved notability. This includes participants that went on to become notable mathematicians, participants who won medals at an exceptionally young age, or participants who scored highly.
| Terence Tao |  Australia | 1986 | data-sort-value="3" style="background-color:#FFCC99;" | Bronze | ||
| Raúl Chávez Sarmiento |  Peru | 2009 | data-sort-value="3" style="background-color:#FFCC99;" | Bronze | ||
| Terence Tao | Australia | 1987 | data-sort-value="2" style="background-color:#E5E5E5;" | Silver | ||
| Alex Chui |  Hong Kong | 2020 | data-sort-value="2" style="background-color:#E5E5E5;" | Silver | ||
| Akshay Venkatesh | Australia | 1994 | data-sort-value="3" style="background-color:#FFCC99;" | Bronze | ||
| Yeoh Zi Song |  Malaysia | 2014 | data-sort-value="3" style="background-color:#FFCC99;" | Bronze | 12 years, 245 days | |
| Raúl Chávez Sarmiento | Peru | 2010 | data-sort-value="2" style="background-color:#E5E5E5;" | Silver | ||
| Terence Tao | Australia | 1988 | data-sort-value="1" style="background-color:#FEEC80;" | Gold | ||
| Warren Bei |  Canada | 2021 | data-sort-value="2" style="background-color:#E5E5E5;" | Silver | ||
| Alex Chui | Hong Kong | 2021 | data-sort-value="1" style="background-color:#FEEC80;" | Gold | ||
| Damjan Davkov | 2021 | data-sort-value="2" style="background-color:#E5E5E5;" | Silver | |||
| Jeremy Kahn |  United States | 1983 | data-sort-value="2" style="background-color:#E5E5E5;" | Silver | ||
| Raúl Chávez Sarmiento | Peru | 2011 | data-sort-value="1" style="background-color:#FEEC80;" | Gold | ||
| Pawel Kröger | 1972 | data-sort-value="0" style="background-color:#FEEC80;" | Perfect Score | |||
| Pasin Manurangsi |  Thailand | 2007 | data-sort-value="2" style="background-color:#E5E5E5;" | Silver | ||
| Warren Bei | Canada | 2022 | data-sort-value="1" style="background-color:#FEEC80;" | Gold | ||
| Ömer Cerrahoğlu |  Romania | 2009 | data-sort-value="1" style="background-color:#FEEC80;" | Gold | ||
| Pipitchaya Sridam | Thailand | 2021 | data-sort-value="1" style="background-color:#FEEC80;" | Gold | ||
| William Cheah | Australia | 2023 | data-sort-value="1" style="background-color:#E5E5E5;" | Silver | 14 years, 181 days | |
| Damjan Davkov | 2022 | data-sort-value="2" style="background-color:#E5E5E5;" | Silver | |||
| Harvey Yau |  United Kingdom | 2014 | data-sort-value="2" style="background-color:#E5E5E5;" | Silver | ||
| Jeremy Kahn | United States | 1984 | data-sort-value="2" style="background-color:#E5E5E5;" | Silver | ||
| Lisa Sauermann |  Germany | 2007 | data-sort-value="2" style="background-color:#E5E5E5;" | Silver | ||
| Noam Elkies | United States | 1981 | data-sort-value="0" style="background-color:#FEEC80;" | Perfect Score | ||
| Pasin Manurangsi | Thailand | 2008 | data-sort-value="1" style="background-color:#FEEC80;" | Gold | ||
| Aleksandr Khazanov | United States | 1994 | data-sort-value="0" style="background-color:#FEEC80;" | Perfect Score | ||
| Sergei Konyagin | 1972 | data-sort-value="0" style="background-color:#FEEC80;" | Perfect Score | |||
| Ethan Yong-Ern Tan | Australia | 2018 | data-sort-value="1" style="background-color:#FEEC80;" | Gold | ||
| Simon P. Norton | United Kingdom | 1967 | data-sort-value="1" style="background-color:#FEEC80;" | Gold | ||
| Vladimir Drinfeld | 1969 | data-sort-value="0" style="background-color:#FEEC80;" | Perfect Score | |||
| Damjan Davkov | 2023 | data-sort-value="2" style="background-color:#FEEC80;" | Gold | |||
| Yuliy Sannikov |  Ukraine | 1994 | data-sort-value="0" style="background-color:#FEEC80;" | Perfect Score |
The following table lists all IMO Winners who have won at least three gold medals, with corresponding years and non-gold medals received noted (P denotes a perfect score.)
| Name | Team(s) | Years | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zhuo Qun Song | Canada | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 P |
| Teodor von Burg |  Serbia | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 |
| Lisa Sauermann | Germany | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 P | |
| Nipun Pitimanaaree | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | ||
| Christian Reiher | Germany | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | |
| Luke Robitaille | United States | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | ||
| Reid W. Barton | United States | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 P | ||
| Alex Chui | Hong Kong ('20, '21) United Kingdom ('22, '23, '24) | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
| Wolfgang Burmeister | East Germany | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 P | 1971 | |
| Iurie Boreico | Moldova | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 P | 2006 P | 2007 | |
| Lim Jeck |  Singapore | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 P | 2013 | |
| Martin Härterich | West Germany | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 P | 1988 | 1989 | |
| László Lovász |  Hungary | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 P | 1966 P | ||
| Hungary | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 P | |||
| Nikolay Nikolov | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 P | |||
| Kentaro Nagao |  Japan | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | ||
| Vladimir Barzov |  Bulgaria | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | ||
| Peter Scholze | Germany | 2004 | 2005 P | 2006 | 2007 | ||
| Pranjal Srivastava |  India | 2018 | 2019 | 2021 | 2022 | ||
| Makoto Soejima | Japan | 2005 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 P | ||
| Alex Gunning | Australia | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 P | 2015 | ||
| Andrew Carlotti | United Kingdom | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | ||
| Simon Norton | United Kingdom | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 P | |||
| John Rickard | United Kingdom | 1975 P | 1976 | 1977 P | |||
| Sergei Ivanov | Soviet Union | 1987 P | 1988 | 1989 P | |||
| Theodor Banica | Romania | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | |||
| Eugenia Malinnikova | Soviet Union | 1989 | 1990 P | 1991 P | |||
| Sergey Norine | Russia | 1994 P | 1995 P | 1996 | |||
| Yuliy Sannikov | Ukraine | 1994 P | 1995 | 1996 | |||
| Ciprian Manolescu | Romania | 1995 P | 1996 P | 1997 P | |||
| Ivan Ivanov | Bulgaria | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | |||
| Nikolai Dourov | Russia | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | |||
| Tamás Terpai | Hungary | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | |||
| Stefan Hornet | Romania | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | |||
| Vladimir Dremov | Russia | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | |||
| Mihai Manea | Romania | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | |||
| Tiankai Liu | United States | 2001 | 2002 | 2004 | |||
| Oleg Golberg | Russia ('02, '03) United States ('04) | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | |||
| Béla András Rácz | Hungary | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 P | |||
| Andrey Badzyan | Russia | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 P | |||
| Rosen Kralev | Bulgaria | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 P | |||
| Przemysław Mazur |  Poland | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | |||
| Tak Wing Ching | Hong Kong | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | |||
| Chung Song Hong | North Korea | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | |||
| Dong Ryul Kim | South Korea | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | |||
| Allen Liu | United States | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 P | |||
| Sheldon Kieren Tan | Singapore | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | |||
A number of IMO participants have gone on to become notable mathematicians. The following IMO participants have either received a Fields Medal, an Abel Prize, a Wolf Prize or a Clay Research Award, awards which recognise groundbreaking research in mathematics; a European Mathematical Society Prize, an award which recognizes young researchers; or one of the American Mathematical Society's awards (a Blumenthal Award in Pure Mathematics, Bôcher Memorial Prize in Analysis, Cole Prize in Algebra, Cole Prize in Number Theory, Fulkerson Prize in Discrete Mathematics, Steele Prize in Mathematics, or Veblen Prize in Geometry and Topology) recognizing research in specific mathematical fields. Grigori Perelman proved the Poincaré conjecture (one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems), and Yuri Matiyasevich gave a negative solution of Hilbert's tenth problem.
G denotes an IMO gold medal, S denotes a silver medal, B denotes a bronze medal, and P denotes a perfect score.
| Name | Team | IMO | Fields Medal | Wolf Prize | EMS Prize | AMS research prizes | Clay Award | class=“unsortable” | Abel Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grigory Margulis | Soviet Union | S 1962 | 1978 | 2005 | 2020 | ||||
| George Lusztig | Romania | S 1963, S 1962 | 1985 (Cole algebra) | ||||||
| Henryk Iwaniec | Poland | S 1966, 1965 | 2002 (Cole number theory) | ||||||
| László Lovász | Hungary | P 1966, P 1965, G 1964, S 1963 | 1999 | 1982, 2012 (Fulkerson) | 2021 | ||||
| Andrei Suslin | Soviet Union | G 1967 | 2000 (Cole algebra) | ||||||
| János Pintz | Hungary | B 1969, P 1968,B 1967 | 2014 (Cole number theory) | ||||||
| Vladimir Drinfeld | Soviet Union | P 1969 | 1990 | 2018 | |||||
| Andrei Zelevinsky | Soviet Union | S 1969 | 2018 (Steele) | ||||||
| Alexander Merkurjev | Soviet Union | S 1972 | 2012 (Cole algebra) | ||||||
| Pierre-Louis Lions |  France | 1973 | 1994 | ||||||
| János Kollár | Hungary | P 1974, G 1973 | 2006 (Cole algebra) | ||||||
| Jean-Christophe Yoccoz | France | P 1974, S 1973 | 1994 | ||||||
| Sergey Fomin | Soviet Union | S 1974 | 2018 (Steele) | ||||||
| Paul Vojta | United States | P 1975 | 1992 (Cole number theory) | ||||||
| Alexander Goncharov | Soviet Union | G 1976 | 1992 | ||||||
| Richard Borcherds | United Kingdom | G 1978, S 1977 | 1998 | 1992 | |||||
| Timothy Gowers | United Kingdom | P 1981 | 1998 | 1996 | |||||
| Peter Kronheimer | United Kingdom | S 1981 | 2007 (Veblen) | ||||||
| Michel Goemans |  Belgium | 1981, 1982 | 2000 (Fulkerson) | ||||||
| Gábor Tardos | Hungary | S 1982, S 1981, 1979 | 1992 | ||||||
| Grigori Perelman | Soviet Union | P 1982 | 2006[3] | 1996[4] | |||||
| Alexis Bonnet | France | S 1984, S 1983 | 1996 | ||||||
| Laurent Lafforgue | France | S 1985, S 1984 | 2002 | 2000 | |||||
| Daniel Tătaru | Romania | P 1985, P 1984 | 2002 (Bôcher) | ||||||
| Zoltán Szabó | Hungary | S 1985 | 2007 (Veblen) | ||||||
| Jeremy Kahn | United States | G 1986, G 1985, S 1984, S 1983 | 2012 | ||||||
| Ricardo Pérez-Marco |  Spain | S 1986, 1985 | 1996 | ||||||
| Dominic Joyce | United Kingdom | S 1986 | 2000 | ||||||
| Stanislav Smirnov | Soviet Union | P 1987, P 1986 | 2010 | 2004 | 2001 | ||||
| Terence Tao | Australia | G 1988, S 1987, B 1986 | 2006 | 2002 (Bôcher) | 2003 | ||||
| Elon Lindenstrauss |  Israel | B 1988 | 2010 | 2004 | 2001 (Blumenthal) | ||||
| Ngô Bảo Châu | Vietnam | G 1989, P 1988 | 2010 | 2004 | |||||
| Emmanuel Grenier | France | B 1989 | 2000 | ||||||
| Vincent Lafforgue | France | P 1991, P 1990 | 2000 | ||||||
| Eugenia Malinnikova | Soviet Union | P 1991, P 1990, G 1989 | 2017 | ||||||
| Akshay Venkatesh | Australia | B 1994 | 2018 | ||||||
| Artur Avila |  Brazil | G 1995 | 2014 | 2008 | |||||
| Emmanuel Breuillard | France | G 1995 | 2012 | ||||||
| Ben J. Green | United Kingdom | S 1995, S 1994 | 2008 | 2004 | |||||
| Maryam Mirzakhani | Iran | P 1995, G 1994 | 2014 | 2009 (Blumenthal) | 2014 | ||||
| Boáz Klartag | Israel | S 1996 | 2008 | ||||||
| Ciprian Manolescu | Romania | P 1997, P 1996, P 1995 | 2012 | ||||||
| Adrian Ioana | Romania | S 1999 | 2012 | ||||||
| Mark Braverman | Israel | G 2000, B 1999, B 1998 | 2016 | ||||||
| Ana Caraiani | Romania | G 2003, G 2002, S 2001 | 2020 | ||||||
| Kaisa Matomäki |  Finland | 2003, 2002 | 2020 | ||||||
| Simion Filip | S 2005, B 2004 | 2020 | |||||||
| Peter Scholze | Germany | G 2007, G 2006, P 2005, S 2004 | 2018 | 2016 | 2015 (Cole algebra) | 2014 |
IMO medalists have also gone on to become notable computer scientists. The following IMO medalists have received a Nevanlinna Prize, a Knuth Prize, or a Gödel Prize; these awards recognise research in theoretical computer science. G denotes an IMO gold medal, S denotes a silver medal, B denotes a bronze medal, and P denotes a perfect score.
| Name | Team | IMO | Nevanlinna Prize | Knuth Prize | Gödel Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| László Lovász | Hungary | P 1966, P 1965, G 1964, S 1963 | 1999 | 2001 | |
| László Babai | Hungary | P 1968, S 1967, S 1966 | 2015 | 1993 | |
| Johan Håstad |  Sweden | G 1977 | 1994, 2011 | ||
| Peter Shor | United States | S 1977 | 1998 | 1999 | |
| Alexander Razborov | Soviet Union | G 1979 | 1990 | 2007 | |
| Subhash Khot | India | S 1995, S 1994 | 2014 | ||