The name Alex Song is spoken in reverential tones in Canadian mathematical circles.
The 18-year-old won the International Mathematical Olympiad in Thailand in mid-July, achieving the rare perfect score in the two-day competition against more than 600 high school competitors from 104 countries.
Song has had an incredible run over the past six years, finishing with five gold medals and one bronze against the best in the world. Now he sits atop the all-time leaderboard, ranking first on the Olympiad's Hall of Fame.
The Olympiad is a big deal in math. Previous participants have gone on to win prestigious international awards such as the Fields Medal, given out to a few mathematicians under 40 years old, every four years. It's considered by many as the highest honour in mathematics.
For Song, the Olympiad win wasn't that big of a deal.
"I was definitely very happy at the same time," he says. "But, I mean, it was just whatever happened."
The International Mathematical Olympiad features six questions over two days. There are three questions on the first day for more than four hours of competition, then the same on the second day.
"The middle questions on each day were very difficult," Tsimerman said.
"This year, even if you did solve them both, there wasn't much time left over to solve the final questions on each day, so you saw much fewer people solving those because they didn't have the time."
But Song was in the zone, cruising on both days, finishing with an hour to spare on Day 1 and 30 minutes the next.
He kept celebrations to a minimum.
"I didn't do too much -- it was Thailand. We mostly just stayed in the hotel, talked to the other teams, played some games with them and went on some excursions."
The champ will start his collegiate career at Princeton University next month. He said he hopes to focus on pure mathematics and "needs to get prepared for mathematical research."
Tsimerman said Canadians should remember Song's name.
"He is destined for greatness," Tsimerman said. "But let's not forget he's already achieved greatness in his short career."
Canadian teen Alex Song wins math Olympiad for high school students | CTV News
The 18-year-old won the International Mathematical Olympiad in Thailand in mid-July, achieving the rare perfect score in the two-day competition against more than 600 high school competitors from 104 countries.
Song has had an incredible run over the past six years, finishing with five gold medals and one bronze against the best in the world. Now he sits atop the all-time leaderboard, ranking first on the Olympiad's Hall of Fame.
The Olympiad is a big deal in math. Previous participants have gone on to win prestigious international awards such as the Fields Medal, given out to a few mathematicians under 40 years old, every four years. It's considered by many as the highest honour in mathematics.
For Song, the Olympiad win wasn't that big of a deal.
"I was definitely very happy at the same time," he says. "But, I mean, it was just whatever happened."
The International Mathematical Olympiad features six questions over two days. There are three questions on the first day for more than four hours of competition, then the same on the second day.
"The middle questions on each day were very difficult," Tsimerman said.
"This year, even if you did solve them both, there wasn't much time left over to solve the final questions on each day, so you saw much fewer people solving those because they didn't have the time."
But Song was in the zone, cruising on both days, finishing with an hour to spare on Day 1 and 30 minutes the next.
He kept celebrations to a minimum.
"I didn't do too much -- it was Thailand. We mostly just stayed in the hotel, talked to the other teams, played some games with them and went on some excursions."
The champ will start his collegiate career at Princeton University next month. He said he hopes to focus on pure mathematics and "needs to get prepared for mathematical research."
Tsimerman said Canadians should remember Song's name.
"He is destined for greatness," Tsimerman said. "But let's not forget he's already achieved greatness in his short career."
Canadian teen Alex Song wins math Olympiad for high school students | CTV News
