The problems of this year’s EGMO contest proved to be the most challenging since Australia first participated in 2018. It turns out, however, that we only have ourselves to blame as the first problem on both the day 1 and day 2 papers were proposed by Australia!
As challenging as the problems were, every team member persevered for four-and-a-half hours on consecutive days, trying to find new ideas and avenues of thought, staring into elaborate diagrams and morasses of algebra, and simply doing everything they could to uncover the underlying mathematics behind the problem at hand.
And what an incredible job the Australian team did in this 2021 EGMO Contest. Placing 12th among the 55 teams from all around the world is an incredible feat and our equal best-ever! The official scoreboard can be found here. A particular congratulations to Ruiying Wu who achieved a Gold medal and to both Elizabeth Yevdokimov and Mikaela Gray who achieved Bronze medals.
While the 2021 EGMO could only be held online, it didn’t stop the team immersing themselves in the event. The Australian team not only rose to the Khinkali Challenge but won it! The team certainly enjoyed every minute making and devouring Georgia’s delicious broth-filled meat dumplings.
It was midnight before Australia could watch the closing ceremony, but it was worth staying up to be able to join with the German team on zoom to celebrate every ones’ successes.
A couple of games of Gartic Phone (a mash-up of Pictionary and Chinese Whispers) certainly kept us all laughing well into the night!
Once again, it has been an absolute privilege to participate in the European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad. There is much to celebrate, not only with Australia’s achievements in the 2021 contest, but with how far our Olympiad program has come supporting girls to achieve incredible feats in the world of Mathematics.
P.S. @Marvin (Hungarian mascot), FLT & flt (Australian mascots) and all of us Down Under really hope that in 2022 we’ll be able to venture to the other side of the world and see you in person in Eger, Hungary.
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