A six-member students team from India have helped the country secure its best performance ever in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) 2024. The Indian team came in fourth rank globally securing four Gold medals, one silver medal and one honourable mention at the just concluded 65th IMO held at Bath, United Kingdom.

This is the best performance by an Indian in IMO since the country’s debut in 1989 both in terms of number of Gold medals won and rank achieved. India’s previous best rank achieved until 2024 was rank 7 , at IMO 1998 and IMO 2001. 

High school students Adhitya Mangudy (Grade 11), Ananda Bhaduri (Grade 12), Kanav Talwar (Grade 10), and Rushil Mathur (Grade 12) bagged the gold medal. Arjun Gupta (Grade 12) won the Silver medal, and Siddharth Choppara (Grade 12) clinched an honourable mention.

Globally, Team USA, China, and South Korea finished as the top three winners in that order. At fourth place, India’s total score at the Olympiad is 167 just one mark behind South Korea’s at third spot. The winning team USA’s total score is 192. In all 609 students (528 male, 81 Female) took part in the IMO 2024, which saw 108 countries participate.

“Interestingly, since 2019 (with the exception of 2020 when India couldn’t take part in the IMO) Team India has secured at least one Gold medal every year at the IMO and the total gold medal haul in all these years is nine,” Prithwijit De, the National Coordinator, Mathematical Olympiad, and an associate professor at the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBSCE), said. 

The Indian team trained at the IMO Training Camp held at Chennai Mathematical Institute this year and was accompanied by mentors professor Krishnan Sivasubramanian of IIT Bombay, and former IMO medallists Rijul Saini of HBCSE and Rohan Goyal currently a Ph D student at MIT, USA, among others.

CMI director Madhavan Mukund said that they see growing interest each year among students to participate in International Olympiads be it Mathematics or Science. “As they see success stories in the previous editions, their confidence and determination also goes up,” he adds.

The IMO is a World Championship Mathematics Competition for High School students. Those in academia note that traditionally, Olympiad winners from India go on to do their undergraduate degrees in Mathematics or other STEM subjects abroad and get into academia. The pool of Olympiad winners and IIT aspirants does not generally overlap, they add.

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