U.S. mathletes finished fourth in the world

The 2016 matheletes went to Brazil for the international competition of high school students.

THE UNITED STATES Mathematical Olympiad team finished fourth this year at the International Mathematical Olympiads held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

"We are very proud to be among the top five scoring teams again this year, highlighting our country's consistent mathematical talent and problem-solving capabilities among our high school students," said Michael Pearson, executive director of the MAA.

Five of the six members of the team were Asian/Americans. They were chosen from 3000 high school competitors from across the nation. The American team finished behind
Korea, China and Vietnam.

The members of the 2017 U.S. team sent to Rio de Janiero  are: Ankan Bhattacharya, Zachary Chroman, Andrew Gu, Vincent Huang, James Lin, and Junyao Peng.

Lin from Massachusetts, placed sixth out of more than 600 students who competed in the International Mathematical Olympiad. All six team USA members were in the top 103 scorers of the entire competition.

They were accompanied by coach Po-Shen Loh, professor of mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University, and deputy coach was Brian Lawrence, a graduate student at Stanford University.

The son of immigrants from Singapore, Po was on the team in 1999. But when he took over as coach three years ago, the United States hadn't won in 20 years.

When ranking students from 71 countries, the U.S. consistently tested in the bottom half.

"If you just constantly challenge and enjoy the love of doing better today than you did yesterday, then you will be on an onward march towards success," Po said.

Since Po has taken over as coach three years ago, the U.S. has placed first in 2015 and 2016 and fourth this year. 

The competition based its scores on the number of points scored by individual team members on six problems. The competition lasted two days and teams were given 4.5 hours to work three problems.

CBS

The U.S. team of the International Mathematical Olympiad prepares at a training camp at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

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