What the scoreboards record
EGMO's published results are unusually complete for a school-age competition. Each contestant appears with a national code, her marks on all six problems, a total out of 42, a rank and a medal. Hergul's name sits on two of them.
In Prishtina in 2025 she scored 29 for fourteenth place and gold. In Bordeaux in 2026 she scored 26, shared tenth place and took gold again. Her rank improved even as her raw total fell, which happens when a harder problem set pulls the whole field down.
The Bordeaux tie
The 2026 result was a three-way finish. Hergul, Anna Kazhamiakina of Italy and Rina Hatachi of Japan all ended on 26 points and shared the rank of tenth, each awarded gold.
Because every problem is marked out of seven, totals gather in clusters and joint ranks are common near the medal cut. The scoreboard makes no attempt to break those ties, so the three names sit level on the published table, an Italian, a Japanese and a Turkish contestant separated by nothing at all.
Turkey at the girls' olympiad
The Turkish record at EGMO in these years runs deeper than one competitor. The 2023 scoreboard from Portoroz in Slovenia shows two Turkish contestants, Melek Gungor and Irem Gulce Yazgan, among the fourteen girls who scored a perfect 42 that year.
Hergul's two golds follow that run. The scoreboards do not explain it, since they record results rather than training systems, but they do establish that Turkey placed contestants in the top tier of the competition in four consecutive editions from 2023 to 2026. That is a pattern, not a single strong year, and it is visible in the primary documents rather than in any claim made on Turkey's behalf.
What is documented - and what is not
Everything above comes from official EGMO scoreboards. They give scores and placings. They do not give a birth year, an age, a school, a home city, a photograph or a single quoted sentence, and no Wikipedia article on Defne Hergul was found.
Her name also appears without Turkish diacritics in some listings, which is a transliteration artefact rather than a second person. Nothing else about her has been published in the sources used here, and this page does not invent the rest.
Why two golds is the real result
The olympiad moves annually: Portoroz in 2023, Tskaltubo in Georgia in 2024, Prishtina in 2025, Bordeaux in 2026. Each edition brings six problems written for that year alone, so a returning contestant gains no advantage from familiarity with the questions.
She must also be selected again, in a national process that is rerun from scratch every season. A single gold can be read as a strong morning; two, at different venues and against different fields, is a measurement of consistency, which is the harder thing for any competitor to hold.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Defne Hergül | Turkey | EGMO gold medals in 2025 and 2026 | — |
| Colin Shanmo Tang | United States | A perfect 42/42 at the International Mathematical Olympiad, 2019 | — |
| Youngjun Cho | South Korea | A perfect 42/42 at the International Mathematical Olympiad, 2019 | — |
| Galiia Sharafetdinova | Russia | A perfect 42/42 at the International Mathematical Olympiad, 2022 | — |
| Ihor Pylaiev | Ukraine | A perfect 42/42 at the International Mathematical Olympiad, 2022 | — |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- Gold medal and 29 points, fourteenth place, at EGMO 2025 in Prishtina (EGMO official scoreboard)
- Gold medal and 26 points, joint tenth, at EGMO 2026 in Bordeaux (EGMO official scoreboard)
- Turkish contestants Melek Gungor and Irem Gulce Yazgan scored a perfect 42 at EGMO 2023 (EGMO official scoreboard)
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- No published age, birth year, school or home city
- No Wikipedia article, interview or press profile found
- No documented results before 2025 or after 2026
Questions people ask about Defne Hergül
What is Defne Hergul known for?
Two gold medals at the European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad, won for Turkey in 2025 and 2026.
How old is Defne Hergul?
No source used here gives her age or birth year. EGMO scoreboards list names, countries and scores only.
What were her scores?
29 points out of 42 in 2025, ranked fourteenth, and 26 points in 2026, joint tenth. Both results were gold.
How can a lower score produce a better rank?
Because rank depends on the field. A harder problem set lowers totals across the board, so 26 points in one year can place higher than 29 in another.
Have other Turkish contestants done well at EGMO?
Yes. The 2023 scoreboard records Melek Gungor and Irem Gulce Yazgan among the fourteen contestants who scored a perfect 42.
Is Defne Hergul on Wikipedia?
No Wikipedia article on her was found. The documented record is the olympiad's own scoreboards.
Why is her name spelled two ways?
Some listings drop the Turkish diacritics from Hergul. It is a transliteration difference, not a different competitor.
Where is Defne Hergul now?
Nothing after the 2026 olympiad appears in the sources used here.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Defne’s story?
What rank did Defne Hergul take at EGMO 2026?
Which country does she represent?
How many Turkish contestants scored a perfect 42 at EGMO 2023?
Sources
- EGMO 2025 scoreboard (Prishtina, Kosovo) — European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad (official), 2025-04
- EGMO 2026 scoreboard (Bordeaux, France) — European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad (official), 2026-04
- EGMO 2023 scoreboard (Portoroz, Slovenia) — European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad (official), 2023-04
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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