The Good News! The US team managed to earn second place in the 66th International Math Olympiad in Australia, against competition from 110 countries. Well done, team!
The rest of the story? US team members:
No need to ask which country took the top spot.
This gets worse! The history of mathematics is decorated with the names of leading French, German, and even English mathematicians. But that was then, and this is now.
Among the Anglophone countries, the US managed to come second in this international competition – albeit largely thanks to the efforts of Chinese-heritage immigrants to the US. But despite the large number of Chinese immigrants to other Anglophone countries, the best they could manage was Australia at #15 and the UK at #16.
What about once math-dominant Germany and France? Germany came in at #29 with France behind them at #30. Both of these Euro countries trailed … Uzbekistan!
Houston, the West has a problem!
From Claude ai…
Here are the top 10 countries at the 2025 International Mathematical Olympiad:
Top 10 Countries at IMO 2025:
Some interesting notes from the results:
The competition was held on the Sunshine Coast in Australia from July 10-20, 2025.
Real Americans.
Let’s see. In the over half-century of math olympiads, have any of the gold medal winners accomplished anything significant in mathematics? Any Fields Medal winners? Even one?
Point being: excelling in some competition for high school students is not necessarily indicative of genuine mathematical ability of the kind that is useful in academic mathematics — you know, like all those “leading mathematicians.”
That is an excellent point. Now let’s turn it on its head. Is there any indication that the inability to excel in high school competitions is indicative of true mathematical ability?
Turning the clock back, a stellar French mathematician like Henri Poincare did well in the competitions which were organized in his day. Of course, that was in the days before the Uzbeks were able to compete on a level playing field with the French. 
Grok:
Fair point. However, a tiny minority of the Fields Medalists in the last 25 years have been East Asians. Furthermore all of them were working in the West when the medal was awarded.
Many gold medals are awarded; few awardees accomplish anything of note.
[mathematical accomplishment —> Olympiad gold medal]
is not the same as
[Olympiad gold medal —> mathematical accomplishment]
Want to make a prediction about the next 25 years?
I can hold out no longer:
The real issue here is educational systems – or maybe educational expectations.
If we assert that claude.ai gave Citizen Bitcoin real results, then think about those scores relative to many physical Olympic-level events, where the competitors tend to be separated by milliseconds. Not so when it comes to math!
5 country teams in the 193-203 range. China’s team was a whole 15% above that range, while the US team of Chinese-heritage students was about 8% above. Australia came in at 179, around 10% below the Gang of Five. Now look at the names of the Australian team:
International Mathematical Olympiad, 10-20 July, Sunshine Coast, Australia
William Cheah, Scotch College, VIC
William Liu, The King’s School, NSW
Xiangyue Nan, Fintona Girls’ School, VIC
Jayden Pan, Shore School, NSW
Justin Tran, Sydney Grammar School, NSW
Zihui Zhang, Clayfield College, QLD
2025 Australian Olympiad Teams Announcement - Australian Maths Trust
Why do Chinese-heritage students perform better in the US than in Australia? And why do neither of them perform as well as Chinese-heritage students in China?
There is of course the issue of the population sizes to draw from. But is part of the difference that Chinese students in China are expected to perform better, and are consequently more driven to hone their skills? What are the implications for the future of the West?
To what end? We have the data now. The Fields Medal is only awarded to early-career mathematicians. There has been plenty of time for the brilliant East Asians to distinguish themselves. No, instead let us argue about a prediction that can only be tested after we’re both dead.
A more interesting discussion concerns possible confounding factors. Perhaps there is a cultural bias in Asia against devoting one’s life to pure mathematics. Perhaps the mathematicians who make the award don’t like Asians. On the other hand, perhaps a facility in solving math puzzles by high school students is a poor indicator of the ability to do groundbreaking, creative work in mathematics. Maybe it’s a better predictor of future superb tax accountants or financial analysts.
Well, here is an interesting wrinkle on our rapidly degenerating world.
Russian students secure six medals at world’s top math contest — RT Russia & Former Soviet Union
The Russian team was excluded from the International Math Olympiad in Australia because of … reasons. It appears that the Russians set up their own venue to test their students:
“For the Russian national team, the competition was held remotely at a venue provided by Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok.”
For anyone keeping score, the Russian team scored the same as the (ethnic Chinese) US team, trailing the (ethnic Chinese) Chinese team.
It is sad that young people of Russian extraction are denied the opportunity to compete openly in international competitions because US Senators want war in the Ukraine – but good news that at least some Euro-stock people are in the same intellectual league as ethnic Chinese students.
It is also sad (and more) that people with Russian names (may or may not be actual Russian citizens) have had their property and money confiscated - even in once reputable countries like Switzerland. I know this (and may have lost valuable holdings myself) because our main investments are managed by a holding company in Zurich. Interestingly, unlike Western European thieving governments, Russia has not confiscated our (relatively small - around 1% of our total ownership) holdings in Russia. Rather, the western sanctions make it impossible for us to carry on any financial transactions with our Russian companies. Officially, in Russia, we are still owners and dividends continue to accrue. Given the prudence of our investment holding company partnership, however, these few companies are carried at zero value on our books for purposes of our own accounting. I do hope the west (sic) will finally come to its senses.
As Jim Rogers says: There is good opportunity in country xyz, but I can’t legally invest there because I am from the land of the free.
She was an employee of Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection .
Here’s a quick summary of the priorities of that department in the period she worked there:
It doesn’t look good: from killing people during the cultural revolution, to US education, to helping deindustrialize America, to helping industrialize China with Western capital. Chance? Design? What do you think?
Not even half joking I have conjectured that a good deal of what people think of as Jewish virulence is the product of a Maoist intelligence operation doing gain of function in the US.
All they have to do is identify the small number of Jews* among the libertarians capable of effectively advocating the replacement of the 16th amendment with the net asset tax combined with replacing the welfare state with a citizens dividend. Then play dirty tricks on them to neutralize them. That then leaves things up to goys like me to try and course correct capitalism.
* Saul Price comes to mind.
