Posted Sunday, July 16, 2006, The OG, news

[Note: This article includes information and links added on Wednesday, July 19.]

Rising junior Alex Zhai has won a silver medal at the 47th International Mathematical Olympiad, held in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Zhai, who was competing in his first IMO, scored 25 out of a possible 42 points.

The six-problem, nine-hour competition took place Wednesday and Thursday. Students had four and a half hours each day to work on three problems.

The contest involved 498 students from 90 countries. The six-member U.S. team won two gold medals and four silver to place fifth overall. The People's Republic of China led the way with six gold medals.

Zhai was one of 89 students to win a silver medal. Forty-two students won gold; 124 earned bronze. Zhai tied for 49th place.

China won the team championship with 214 points. The Russian Federation finished second with 174 points, followed by the Republic of Korea with 170, Germany with 157, and the United States with 154.

The results were announced today at the IMO's official Web site. Click here for the complete list. (Team results can be found at the bottom of the page.)

The Olympiad concludes Monday with an awards ceremony. Click here for photos documenting IMO activities. Two photos of Zhai wearing his official U.S. blazer can be found under the July 17 set of photos (subsection “Banquet”). The captions read: “Happily posing” and “But the third one wanted to be in the picture also.”

Zhai and his teammates were selected to represent the United States through a four-stage process sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America. They competed in the American Mathematics Contest, the American Invitational Mathematics Examination, the United States of America Mathematical Olympiad, and the Team Selection Test.