From all-round academic master to chief scientist

In addition to the four awards of IMO: gold, silver, bronze medals and honorary awards, there is another award, the special award.

Special prizes will be given to contestants who use an elegant solution or correctly generalize a problem.

The last time a player won a special award was in 2005, 13 years ago.

Special awards often appeared in IMOs held before the 1990s. Even before the 1980s, some players could even win two special awards.

But this situation has become rare after the 1990s. Including after the 1990s, only in 1995 and 2005 did anyone win the special award.

After 2005, there has never been a special award.

As for why?

Because the routines of various mathematics questions have been thoroughly studied, and the scope of IMO questions is not strictly limited to a certain outline. It is broader than the mathematics knowledge students learned in middle school, but it is also broader than college mathematics. The scope is much smaller.

For this reason, when the proposition group makes a proposition, even if it arranges and combines the knowledge within the scope of the outline, it is always exhaustive. What's more, this is not a simple arrangement and combination. After all, the members of the proposition group are People also have limits on their level. Although they can ask some difficult enough questions, there are always tricks to follow.

In addition, because the educational environment in each country is different from the original, this has also led to the situation that no one has received the special award now.

However, this time, George Iger actually said that he would give out a special award?

Everyone present felt incredible for a moment, and then looked around to see who could get this award.

But soon, everyone almost unanimously looked at the seats of the Chinese team and the young man.

If among the contestants present, who has the best chance of winning the special award, it would probably be that boy, right?

Sure enough, as expected, George Iger solemnly announced: "The player who won this special award is Lin Xiao from the Chinese team."

"He used a very special solution to solve the third question on the first day of the exam, and then completed the final proof in the most concise process."

Following George Ige's announcement, Lin Xiao's proof process also appeared on the big screen behind him. Of course, it has been compiled into an electronic version, which makes it look clearer.

Everyone looked at it, and those who understood it were quickly shocked.

Perfect!

This method is really perfect.

They all had to ask in their hearts, how did Lin Xiao come up with the idea of ​​introducing Euler's formula?

One is a combination problem, and the other is e^(iπ)+1=0. The former is only slightly related to algebra, but can it be solved by the latter?

If it were them, they probably wouldn't be able to think of this method of proof no matter how much time they were given.

In addition, Lin Xiao's conversion of the original formula during the calculation process also amazed them even more.

Without such a conversion, it would be completely impossible to apply Euler's formula.

On the US team's side, James Lin finished watching Lin Xiao's proof process, and finally shook his head gently, and looked at each other with his other teammates, and they all saw the helplessness in each other's eyes.

The gap is really too big.

Can China's education be able to teach such terrifying students?

They were all in disbelief.

As for the Chinese team, they were once again caught in a surprise.

Li Huaimin looked at Lin Xiao and hugged him with both hands. There was an unbelievable smile on his face, which seemed to be a little confused.

Probably like what Guardiola looked like when he saw Lewandowski score five goals in nine minutes.

He really didn't expect that Lin Xiao would win another special award, an award that had not been awarded for more than ten years.

For the Chinese team, this is also the first time that one of their players has won a special award. It means that Lin Xiao has made history for the Chinese team IMO this time!

Li Huaimin gave Lin Xiao a thumbs up. Overwhelmed with joy, he could only say: "Lin Xiao, you did a good job."

"Hurry up and go on stage to receive the award."

Lin Xiao nodded. He had already been mentally prepared for the special award. After all, the chairman had told him before that there was a surprise for him.

And IMO what surprises can there be?

It’s nothing more than a special award.

He sighed slightly in his heart. Last year, he felt that it would be a pity if he could not wear the golden medal on the IMO awards stage in his life.

Now, not only did he wear this golden medal, he even received a special award that had not been awarded for a long time.

However, at this time, his heart was still calm.

He once again left his seat and walked onto the stage.

This time, he was the only one on stage.

And he also received everyone's attention.

"Congratulations, young man, this is the surprise I said. How do you feel?"

George Eagle watched Lin Xiao coming with a smile on his face.

"It feels pretty good, thank you Mr. Eagle." Lin Xiao smiled back.

"Haha, there is nothing to thank me for. This is all obtained by your own efforts and has nothing to do with me. Moreover, awarding you the special award was unanimously decided by our organizing committee, so it was not decided by me alone."

"Excellent people have outstanding rights and outstanding honors." George Eagle said with a smile, and at this time, the staff next to him had already walked over with the tray holding the trophy.

The special award is a trophy, which is transparent and looks very special in shape.

George Iger held the trophy in both hands and then handed it to Lin Xiao.

"This trophy has been waiting for its owner for a long time. Thirteen years have passed and it is finally shown to the world again. However, I believe that in the future, it will also be proud of you as its owner."

Lin Xiao took the trophy solemnly, with emotion on his face.

The first trophy I got.

All I got before were medals, but this is the only trophy.

Then he raised his head and looked at George Eagle, smiled slightly, and said, "I will not live up to its expectations."

George Eagle was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "I'm looking forward to that day too."

He has been the chairman of IMO for many years and has met countless mathematical geniuses, but only Lin Xiao is the student he thinks has the most mathematical talent.

He is also the future mathematics master who he believes has the best chance of winning the Fields Medal. In fact, he often tells the best performers from various countries that they have the chance to win the Fields Medal. This is also his encouragement to these young people. He hopes They can work towards this goal in the future.

As for the 2014 Fields Medal winner he told Lin Xiao, he just made it up.

Because the IMO gold medal that Artur Avila won was more than 20 years ago, and George Ige was not the chairman of the IMO at that time. Of course, he could not give Artur Avila the gold medal at the beginning. Avila presented him with the medal and then told him that he might win the Fields Medal.

Of course, he also believed that it was impossible for Lin Xiao to investigate this kind of thing specifically.

Therefore, as long as Lin Xiao believed it, his words would definitely inspire Lin Xiao.

This is what he, the IMO president, can do for the future mathematics community and this young man.

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