The entire Greek delegation returned with medals from the 65th International Mathematical Olympiad 2024, which took place in Bath, United Kingdom on 11-22 July 2024, with the participation of 108 countries.

The success was announced by the Hellenic Mathematical Society and the Greek team was led by the President of the Hellenic Mathematical Society and Professor Emeritus of the National Technical University of Athens, Professor Anargyros Fellouris.

609 students from 108 countries took part in the Mathematical Olympiad. Greece was ranked 27th among them this year, the third best performance in the country. In terms of performance within the European Union, our country ranked 7th.

The six Greek students, who participated in the mission, won one gold medal, two silver and three bronze. Specifically, the gold medal was won by Kyriakos Tsourekas from Moraitis School.

The silver medal went to Orestis Lignos from the Hellenic Education Schools and Nektarios-Rafael Berkoutakis from the 3rd General Lyceum of Pyrgos.

The bronze medal winners were Socrates Eliades from the Anavryta Standard Lyceum, Ioannis Galamatis from the Experimental School of the University of Thessaloniki and Dionysios Petrakis from the Kanithos High School.

It should be noted that they had previously won the Panhellenic Mathematics Competition, with the participation of 12,000 students, an event organised by the Hellenic Mathematical Society, which began in 1934.

Who is the Olympic gold medalist in mathematics

Although after winning the gold medal at the 65th International Mathematical Olympiad, Kyriakos Tsourekas, a graduate of the Moraitis School’s Secondary School, was informed that he has already secured scholarships to study at all the universities in England, he is probably leaning towards the Polytechnic University – “I’ll weigh it better in the next year but Metsovio is probably my first choice,” he says.

Kyriakos’ “star” was noticed as early as first grade. “I’ve been participating in these competitions since fifth grade and I always wanted to go to an international competition. This one was a unique experience! In terms of the volume of participants, there were over 600 students and I was very proud to have been there. On the other hand, I was nervous because I had set the bar high and the ‘weight’ was great. In fact, the more I saw the other kids around me, the more nervous I became. But when I started writing, my anxiety became ‘creative’ so that I could perform,” he captures his experience.

The competition lasts for two days and each day participants are tested on three topics for 4.5 hours.
Stronger opponents? “Definitely the Chinese, they are the strongest,” Kyriakos will say without a second thought to add: “They have a tradition of high positions and medals. While I was preparing this year and the year before, I aimed to pass at least one Chinese, because they usually get a lot of golds.”

The intensive preparation, support from school and discharge

As for his school, the young Olympian notes: “The Moraitis School has supported me very much from the beginning, when I started attending the fifth grade, because since then I have been participating in math competitions. At all stages of the process, both teachers and my classmates have been close to me. This year, my mathematician was Mr. Laskaratos, whom I have had as a teacher for many years and he has always been by my side.”

Preparing for the Mathematical Olympiad, however, requires intensive training. “In the first year, when I started to prepare for my participation in the Olympiad, then a student of the third grade, my coach was Irini Miliori – she was the first girl who excelled in competitive mathematics. She had won a silver medal at the Balkan Games and today, she is a student of Electrical Engineering at the NTUA. The next two years, until today, when I reached the Olympiad, my training was taken over by her father, Yannis Milioris, a professor of Mathematics. Preparation is also done by the Hellenic Mathematical Society – in the summer we had ten two-hour lessons before the Olympiad.”

How did he combine training with everyday life and school demands? “I tried to do as much math as possible because I knew that was my main goal. Beyond that, when you dedicate yourself so much to something and the school itself is understanding. The other subjects, I treat them with respect, I try to be formal.”

Exercise is the way he chooses to de-stress: “Sports are part of my life. Almost every day, I make time to play sports – I’ve done swimming, basketball, track and field. Now I’ve taken up boxing. It’s a way to balance, to let off steam, because with reading you need something to calm the mind at the same time. Of course, I also have my friends. And when you have such difficult goals, it’s good that your friends are understanding. In fact, if they have high goals themselves, like my friends, they can understand it better. They help me, they understand me. We go to each other’s houses, we go out, but not that often. I used to say to them ‘guys, after the Olympics, we go wherever you want’. But I also have my brother, who spends time with me,” Kyriakos stresses.

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It should be noted that his brother Michael, who is two years younger than him and who will go to the first grade in September, also excels in Mathematics – also a member of the national high school student delegation, he came first in the sixth grade and participated in the 40th Balkan Mathematical Olympiad, which was held in Antalya, Turkey, winning the silver medal.

They won the gold medal in Turkey’s Tbilisi, Turkey, at the 16th Summer Olympics in Turkey, where they won the silver medal at the 10th Summer Olympics in Turkey.

For now, Kyriakos is trying to make the most of every moment of this summer to rest – a family holiday one week in Chios and another in Metsovo – as a particularly demanding year awaits him: apart from the third grade, he is starting to prepare for the next world mathematics competition, which will be held next year in Australia.

Taking an imaginary leap in time, how does the young man imagine himself in 10 years? “The only sure thing is that I want to be in Greece. I will try to be proud of myself because I understand that this gives me joy. Every day I try to be proud of what I have accomplished in the day, so I plan to continue.”