The six-member South Korean delegation won medals at the 66th International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) held in Sydney, Australia, scoring a total of 203 points and ranking third overall.

They achieved outstanding results, winning four gold medals and two silver medals. China took first place with a total of 231 points, followed by the United States with 216 points. South Korea secured third place, with India (192 points) in fourth and Romania (185 points) in fifth.

This marks the second consecutive year that South Korea has achieved a top-tier ranking, further solidifying its position as a mathematical powerhouse.

The competition featured 630 participants from 110 countries, and six problems were presented. However, the final one, Problem 6, was particularly difficult, with only six participants managing to solve it.

Yoo Ho-seok, director of the Korean Mathematical Olympiad team at Sejong University who led the delegation, said, “As many countries increase their interest in mathematics and expand support for math education, competition in the International Mathematical Olympiad is becoming increasingly fierce.”

Meanwhile, the competition also drew attention to instances in which AI solved real IMO problems and achieved gold medal-level performance. Notably, Google DeepMind's Gemini model and OpenAI's O1 model demonstrated performance comparable to that of human participants by solving math problems using natural language.

This suggests that changes in mathematics education and assessment methods may be on the horizon. Nevertheless, human creativity and intuition in problem-solving are still considered irreplaceable, and the achievements of the South Korean team serve as a clear reminder of this.

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