The row, question by question
Six problems, seven points each, two papers of three. Hamakawa took full marks on five of them, including problem six, the question that ends the second day and that most of the field never finishes. His single low mark was on problem three, which closes the first day and is set at the same level of difficulty.
One point out of seven is the record of a start. Marks at the olympiad are agreed in coordination, where each script is assessed against a scheme published for the paper, so the figure describes what the script contained rather than an impression of it. Everything else Hamakawa wrote in Shanghai was accepted in full.
Two ways to reach 36
Joint fourteenth place was shared with Dinh Tung Nguyen of Vietnam, whose row is the mirror image: full marks on problems one to five and one point on problem six. Identical totals, opposite gaps. The olympiad ranks on the sum alone, so the table records them as equals and says nothing about which of the two hard problems each contestant cracked.
The clustering is structural. Because the two hardest questions are worth seven points each and the other four are solved outright by most of the leading contestants, scores at the top of the table gather at a few values, and shared places are the norm rather than the exception.
Fourteenth of 666
The 2026 olympiad drew 666 contestants, each selected through a national process that in most countries narrows a field of hundreds or thousands to a team of six. Seven of the 666 wrote perfect papers: Leyan Deng, Che Liu and Bolun Zhang of China, Hyeonjun Lee of the Republic of Korea, Alex Chui of the United Kingdom, and Liam Reddy and Alexander Wang of the United States.
Against that field, 36 points is a place inside the top fifteen and comfortably within the gold band, which the olympiad sets at approximately the top twelfth. The result is published by the competition itself, which is the strongest form the documentation of a contest result takes.
What is documented — and what is not
Firm: 36 points of 42, the breakdown of 7, 7, 1, 7, 7, 7, joint fourteenth place, a gold medal, Japan as the country, and the 2026 olympiad in Shanghai as the competition.
Open: no age, birth year, school, city or photograph appears in the sources gathered here, and no Japanese press coverage is included among them. Nothing on this page states whether Hamakawa had competed at an earlier olympiad or what he has done since, because no source used here says.
Why the number outlasts the medal
Medal boundaries at the IMO move with the paper. Gold, silver and bronze are awarded by proportion, so a score that takes gold one year can fall short in another, and a list of medallists compresses a wide range of performances into three words.
The rank and the row do not compress. A contestant who finished joint fourteenth of 666 with five full solutions in Shanghai in 2026 has a result that can be checked line by line against the organisers' table, years after the medals have been handed out and the ceremony forgotten.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shinjiro Hamakawa | Japan | One point on problem three, full marks on everything else, and a place in | — |
| Junghun Ju | South Korea | A perfect score at the International Mathematical Olympiad | — |
| Amber Li | Australia | Three consecutive EGMO gold medals | — |
| Aida Mitroi | Romania | Three consecutive EGMO gold medals | — |
| Alisa Volkova | Russia | She solved five of the six problems outright and finished twelfth in the w | — |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- 36 points of 42 at IMO 2026 in Shanghai, joint fourteenth, gold medal (official IMO results)
- Per-problem scores of 7, 7, 1, 7, 7, 7
- Shared the rank with Dinh Tung Nguyen of Vietnam in a field of 666
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- No age, birth year, school or city appears in these sources
- No Japanese press coverage or interview is included among the sources used
- No record of earlier or later olympiad appearances
Questions people ask about Shinjiro Hamakawa
What did Shinjiro Hamakawa achieve?
A gold medal for Japan at the 2026 International Mathematical Olympiad in Shanghai, with 36 points out of 42 and joint fourteenth place among 666 contestants.
What was his score on each problem?
Seven out of seven on problems one, two, four, five and six, and one out of seven on problem three.
How old is Shinjiro Hamakawa?
No source in this record gives his age or birth year. The official results table publishes names, countries, scores, ranks and medals only.
Who shared his place?
Dinh Tung Nguyen of Vietnam, who also scored 36, with full marks on problems one to five and one point on problem six.
How many contestants competed in 2026?
666, according to the official IMO results for that year.
Who scored a perfect 42 in 2026?
Seven contestants: Leyan Deng, Che Liu and Bolun Zhang of China, Hyeonjun Lee of the Republic of Korea, Alex Chui of the United Kingdom, and Liam Reddy and Alexander Wang of the United States.
Is Shinjiro Hamakawa on Wikipedia?
No Wikipedia article was found for him. The source used here is the official IMO results table.
Where is Shinjiro Hamakawa now?
No source in this record says. The documented trail is a single row in the 2026 results.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Hamakawa’s story?
How many points did Shinjiro Hamakawa score at IMO 2026?
On which problem did he drop marks?
Who shared joint fourteenth place with him?
Sources
- IMO 2026 individual results — International Mathematical Olympiad, 2026
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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