The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) was first held in Romania in 1959. This World Championship Mathematics Competition held for high school students began with only seven countries and has now presently grown to over eighty countries from five continents. This is has grown to be an annual event and a variety of countries including the United States have hosted this competition.
Every year a team of extremely talented students is chosen to represent his/her country in this competition. The event last for two days, the competition includes many problems that would challenge even professional mathematicians. The exams are extremely difficult and rigorous. Here is an example of what an individual may see on this type of exam: .
"Let I be the incenter of triangle ABC. Let the incircle of .
ABC touch the sides BC, CA, and AB at K, L, and M.
respectively. The line through B Parallel to MK meets the lines LM and LK at R and S, respectively. Prove that angle RIS is acute".
Many of students that are in this event or students that may join the team go to many math programs and receive training. The MOSP is the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program where many of the teams train and begin to get ready for the actual event. A lot of a student time and dedication go into an event such as this one. .
The United States joined the competition in 1974, since then the U.S. has remained in the top 5 of all the teams for 21 out of the 24 years since it began participating. Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals are given at this event, and the U.S. team has won 148 of these medals for its excellence. In 1994 every member from the team scored a perfect score on the test that was given.
In 2001 the International Mathematical Olympiad was held for the first time in Washington D.C. 500 of the most talented students in the world attended this event. The opening ceremonies for the event began on July 4 and the closing ceremony on July 13 in which the importance of mathematics was praised.