This fantastic all-round performance, with all team members receiving a medal, meant the UK finished in 16th place out of 110 participating countries. This is the ninth time in the past ten years that the UK has placed in the top 20 countries at the “world championship of mathematics”.

Alex Chui, in Year 12 at Tonbridge School, won his fourth IMO gold medal, following success in 2021, 2023 and 2024. Only eight students in the 66 year history of IMO have won four gold medals, and Alex is now ranked second in the IMO all-time “hall of fame”.

The UK team leader Dr Dominic Yeo, Lecturer in Mathematics at King’s College London, said “These problems would be found challenging by any mathematician of any age, and we’re very proud of the UK team, and especially of Alex, Sam, and Teri, for the creativity and breadth of their solutions. They have all worked hard for IMO 2025 through a series of tests and training camps. We hope that the skills they’ve learned, and the confidence gained from this super performance will set them up well for future progress in mathematics and beyond.”

Dr Geoff Smith, Chair of Trustees at UKMT, said “This brilliant achievement by some of our leading young mathematicians is just reward for all the work put in to supporting their development. Their teachers, families, and friends should feel very proud of them.”

More about the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO)

The UK team entry was organised by the UK Mathematics Trust and supported by Jane Street Europe. The team was identified through a rigorous training process, including two examination rounds held across UK schools and multiple training camps organised by UKMT. Information about selection and training for the IMO can be found at bmos.ukmt.org.uk.

The six students representing the UK team, and the medals they received, were: 

• Alex Chui (Tonbridge School) – Gold
• Aanya Goyal (Alleyn’s School) – Bronze
• Adavya Goyal (St Paul’s School) – Bronze
• Samuel Griffiths (King Edward VI College, Stourbridge) – Gold
• Zijie Guan (The Glasgow Academy) – Silver
• Teri Xu (Latymer Upper School) – Gold

IMO 2025, the 66th IMO, took place from 10 – 20 July 2025, and was organised by Australia. It was held on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. The competition consisted of two four-and-a-half hour examination papers, sat across two days. Each paper contained three problems of increasing difficulty. 67 students out of 630 were awarded gold medals.

The first IMO was held in Romania in 1959, with seven countries taking part. Today, more than 100 countries participate, representing over 90% of the world’s population. The IMO is the oldest, biggest, and most prestigious of all the international science Olympiads and the problems of the IMO are notoriously difficult. More details can be found at imo-official.org.

Problems from this year’s competition
The problems from this year’s IMO can be found at the official IMO website.