For the third year in a row the U.S. team wins second place at the European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO), an international math competition of 147 contestants representing 38 countries that competed in Busteni, Romania.

“This is a very competitive olympiad, and getting second shows a strong performance,” said Jenny Iglesias (Carnegie Mellon University), the U.S. team leader. The team of four American high schoolers competed in the proof-style exam from April 10-16, earning a team score of 111 points out of 168. The first place Russian team scored 122.

The U.S. EGMO team, from left: Leader Jenny Iglesias, Demi Guo, Rachel Zhang, Meghal Gupta, Celine Liang, and Deputy Leader Sherry Gong.

In the five years of the EGMO, the United States has consistently placed in the top four teams. The consistent success at the international level comes down to creativity and depth of talent, said Sherry Gong (MIT), the U.S. deputy leader.

“Our students are very good at thinking creatively and out of the box when problem solving,” added Iglesias.

This year each of the team members earned a medal for their individual scores: Rachel Zhang (Parkway South High in Ballwin, Missouri) and Meghal Gupta (Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, California) both won gold; Celine Liang (Saratoga High School in Saratoga, California) took home silver, and Demi Guo (Hangzhou No. 2 High School, China) earned a bronze.

The EGMO exam is run just like the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO): contestants work to solve six proof-style problems that are distributed over two days. “This is a great competition to send our students to, especially because we really need to encourage girls to be bigger participants in international math olympiads,” said Iglesias.

The 2016 EGMO problems, team scores and individual scores can be found at the EGMO home page.

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