Mexican high school students won five medals at the 2026 edition of the extremely challenging International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), with a special honor going to Andrea Sarahi Cascante Duarte of the state of Morelos, who won the Maryam Mirzakhani Award for having achieved the highest overall score among all the female participants in the Americas.
The five medals — all bronze — placed Mexico third in Ibero-America after Brazil and Peru, and down one position from last year’s competition. The country ranked 40th this year in the overall medal count among nearly 100 nations competing.
The students who won bronze medals were Takumi Higashida Martínez (from Mexico City), Juan Luis Manríquez Sequera (Baja California Sur), Sebastián Sotomayor Trujillo (Nuevo León), Javier Caram Quirós (Mexico City) and Iker Torres Terrazas (Chihuahua).
China, which hosted this year’s competition in Shanghai, leads the global ranking, followed by the United States, Russia, Singapore and Vietnam.
The Mexican teenagers’ accomplishments were made possible by the Mexican Mathematics Olympiad (OMM), which congratulated the national delegation.
Guadalupe Russell Noriega, head of the OMM, told the newspaper La Jornada that the support of the private sector and the general public has allowed the national team’s continuous participation in the IMO since Mexico’s debut in the tournament in 1981. That Olympic community is made up of nearly 300 volunteers, including teachers and students, who contribute their talent and time to support the OMM’s activities.
Begun in Romania in 1959, the IMO has become a global benchmark for high school students, who face six highly challenging problems in individual written exams over two days.
About half of the competitors win a medal, with an approximate distribution of one gold medal for every two silver and three bronze.
Mexico News Daily
