Olympiad beginning on the opening of the Olympic Games for the summer sports. The first modern Olympiad began in 1896, the second in 1900, and so on (the 31st began in 2016: see the Olympic Charter). The ancient and modern Olympiads would have synchronised had there been a year zero between the Olympiad of 4 BC and the one of 4 AD. But as the Gregorian calendar goes directly from 1 BC to 1 AD, the ancient Olympic cycle now lags the modern cycle by one year. An ancient Olympiad was a period of four years grouped together, counting inclusively as
International Mathematical Olympiad selection process International Mathematical Olympiad selection process This article describes the selection process, by country, for entrance into the International Mathematical Olympiad. The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is an annual mathematics olympiad for students younger than 20 who have not started at university. Each year, participating countries send at most 6 students. The selection process varies between countries, but typically involves several rounds of competition, each progressively more difficult, after which the number of candidates is repeatedly reduced until the final 6 are chosen. Many countries also run training events for IMO potentials, with the aim of improving performance as well as