International Mathematical Olympiad, referred to as IMO, is an international competition with mathematics as its content and middle school students as its object. It has a history of more than 30 years. As an international competition, the International Mathematical Olympiad was put forward by international mathematical education experts, which exceeded the level of compulsory education in various countries and was much more difficult than the college entrance examination. According to experts, only 5% of children with extraordinary intelligence are suitable for learning the Olympic Mathematics, and it is rare to reach the top of the international mathematical Olympics all the way. Now, IMO has become the most influential academic competition in the world, and it is also recognized as the highest level mathematics competition for middle school students. The math contest in China started at 1956. At the initiative of famous mathematicians such as China and the Soviet Union, initiated by chinese mathematical society, the four cities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Han took the lead in holding high school mathematics competitions.

1934 and 1935, the Soviet union began to hold middle school mathematics competitions in Leningrad and Moscow, and named them Mathematical Olympics. From 65438 to 0959, Romanian Mathematical Physics Society invited middle school students from Eastern European countries to participate in the first International Mathematical Olympiad held in Bucharest, and it has been held once a year since then, and it has been held for 50 times so far.

In recent years, China's achievements in the Mathematical Olympiad, like those of China's athletes in the Olympic Games, have advanced by leaps and bounds. From the 40th to 43rd sessions, the total score of China team was the first for four consecutive years.