September 3, 2021
The Iranian team of high schoolers at the Informatics Olympiad shone this year and came in sixth in the world, but the mathematics team slipped badly, ending up in 29th place, its worst performance ever.
There is now a total of 17 science Olympiads being held around the world each year, although only five are widely attended.
The Olympiads are open to high school students or recent high school graduates. The point is they must not be attending a college yet.
The Tehran Times said that 28 Iranian students attended various Olympiads this year and came away with 27 medals.
In the major Olympiads, Iran averaged a rank of 13.8 this year, about where it has been the last decade and a half. Although before 2006, Iran routinely ended up among the top 10 countries, since 2006, Iran has been among the top 10 only in 2017.
The table shows Iran’s results over the years.
The Olympiads were begun in the 1950s by the Soviet Union and were rarely attended by countries beyond the Soviet orbit until the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, when the main Olympiads were widely accepted and lauded throughout the world.
In recent years, China has come to dominate the Olympiads. This year, for example, the four Chinese entrants in the chemistry Olympiad came in first, second, third and fourth. In the Informatics Olympiad (about computer science), they also came first to fourth. In the physics Olympiad, they came in second to fifth place, with a South Korean taking first place.
The United States came in second in informatics and all four of the American entrants had Chinese names. In physics, the American team came in fourth and three of the four American entrants had Chinese names. In chemistry, the Americans came in eighth and two of the four entrants had Chinese names.