21st time’s the charm: Americans have finally won the International Math Olympiad again

21st time’s the charm: Americans have finally won the International Math Olympiad again

The team beat 19-time winner China in this year's competition in Thailand.

They’re bringing back the crown for the first time since 1994. Time reports that the U.S. team has won the International Mathematical Olympiad in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

The team spent 12 days trying to solve 3 incredibly complex mathematical problems. Their head coach, Carnegie-Mellon profession Po-Shen Loh, admitted that, “if you can even solve one question, you’re a bit of a genius.”

The Indian Panorama lists the team members as Yang Liu, Allen Liu, Ryan Alweiss, David Stoner, Shyam Narayanan, and Michael Kurai. Each team member worked on each problem individually—without the aid of a calculator of course—and their points are totaled to reveal the team’s amount.

19 time winner China landed in second place behind the States. America has won the title 5 times in the Olympiad’s history.

Loh himself sees positive trends from the outcome. He hopes the news will reassure those who worry about the state of American education. He also is happy that their team had 2 females. “One might say…’that’s terrible,’” he admitted. “But I should say in many years it was, unfortunately, zero.”

The team received a congratulatory tweet from the White House including a personal letter of acknowledgement written by President Obama.

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