India's gold blitz at International Mathematical Olympiad Down Under
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Pune: Six contestants, including one from Maharashtra, of the Indian team participating in the 66th International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) 2025 held at Sunshine Coast, Australia, have won three gold, two silver and one bronze medals.
The event saw the participation of 630 students, of which 69 were women.
In 2024, India created history at the IMO by winning four gold medals. Since 1989, India has won 23 gold medals — 12 of which were won between 2019 and 2025, while nine have come over the last three IMOs (2023, 2024, 2025).
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The winning team comprised Kanav Talwar (Delhi), Aarav Gupta (Delhi) and Adhitya Mangudy (Maharashtra) — who won gold medals. Abel George Mathew (Karnataka) and Aadish Jain (Delhi) won silver medals, while Archit Manas (Delhi) bagged a bronze.
The Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE) issued a statement that with this achievement India came seventh at the IMO for the third time and equalled the feats of 1998 and 2001. The best rank achieved, so far, is fourth at the 65th IMO in 2024. It further said, "This is the third time in a row India has achieved a rank in the top 10 at the IMO (India finished ninth at IMO 2023 and fourth at IMO 2024). Since its debut in 1989, India has been placed in the top 10 on seven out of 35 occasions (India did not participate in 2020 because of the pandemic).
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This year, Team India set a new record by achieving the country's highest-ever cumulative score of 193 out of a maximum of 252.
The HBCSE, TIFR, is the nodal centre for training and selecting students to represent India at various international olympiads in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy and astrophysics.
HBCSE conducts the national olympiad examination which serves as the gateway for final team selection.
The statement said, "In IMO, questions are from four broad topics — algebra, combinatorics, number theory and geometry. The host country seeks proposals from every participating country and each can submit up to six problems. Upon receiving the problems by a certain deadline, the problem selection committee (PSC), appointed by the host country and approved by the IMO board, works on all the problems for at least two months and prepares the IMO shortlist (ISL).
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Anant Mudgal, a member of the PSC of IMO 2025, said, "I thank the Mathematical Teachers' Association (India), Chennai Mathematical Institute and the funding agencies for their continued strong support to the mathematical olympiad programme, which enables us to showcase Indian talent on the global stage."
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