Bulgarian Team: Four Medals in Mathematical Olympiad in Cape Town

Bulgarian Team: Four Medals in Mathematical Olympiad in Cape Town

While Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria was battling in the men’s singles semifinal match at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London on Friday, some of his young compatriots, comprising an elite team of Bulgarian heavyweight student athletes were also right in the middle of another sport battling against some of the best in the world, yet not in a sport of that involves the body and sweating, but that of the mind.

Earlier yesterday, the press office of the Bulgarian Natural Science Olympic Leader’s Association announced that Bulgaria’s mathematics team took part at the International Mathematical Olympiad 2014 held in Cape Town, Africa, and everyone returned with an award.

Specifically, Bulgaria’s mathematics team won four medals and two honorary certificates at the Mathematical Olympiad, which lasted ten whole days from July 3 to July 13. What is notable during this Olympiad is that each and every single one of the six member (four male two female) Bulgarian national team won awards, bringing back to Bulgaria three silver medals and one bronze medal, in addition to two honorary certificates. The team was led by Peter Boyvalenkov, who took over from Nikolay Nikolov, and the deputy leader was Stoyan Boev.

A total of 101 countries with 560 competitors took part in the international Mathematical Olympiad 2014 held in Cape Town this year where the Bulgarian High School students managed to outshine some of the brightest minds in the world.

Medals are usually awarded to the highest ranked participants, such that always slightly less than half of them receive a medal, but special prizes may be awarded for solutions to mathematical problems of outstanding elegance or involving good generalisations of a problem. This last happened in 1995 by Bulgarian Nikolay Nikolov.

The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is an annual six-problem, 42-point mathematical olympiad for pre-collegiate students and is the oldest of the International Science Olympiads. The first IMO was held in Romania in 1959. It has since been held annually, except in 1980. Ever since its inception in 1959, the Olympiad has developed a rich legacy and has established itself as the pinnacle of mathematical competition among high school students.

Such success is not without cause, seeing that Bulgaria has a rich history of producing mathematical minds, and it is also host to the Balkan Mathematical Olympiad held annually in Bulgaria at the historical and cultural center of Northwestern Bulgaria in the city of Pleven, and which took place earlier this year in May 2-7, 2014, with the opening ceremony held by Professor Petar Kenderov, President of UBM; and Prof. Dr. Dimitar Stoykov, PhD, Mayor of Pleven Municipality.