Two golds, two near-misses
The 2025 scoresheet reads 7, 7, 1, 7, 7, 7: five problems closed, and a single point on the third. The 2026 scoresheet reads 7, 1, 5, 7, 7, 7, with the damage moving to the second problem and a partial five on the third.
Both are the profile of a contestant operating at the top of the field with one problem left standing. In 2025 that was worth twelfth place among 630 contestants; in 2026, 34 points was worth twentieth among 666.
Where the points went
Olympiad problems are set in rough order of difficulty within each paper, with the third and sixth the hardest of their day. Bachniček's 2026 result cuts against that pattern: he solved the sixth problem outright, the one designed to defeat almost everyone, and lost six marks on the second, which is usually the more approachable.
Coordinators mark what is written rather than what was understood, and a single unjustified step can cost most of a problem's seven points. A one out of seven on a problem a contestant may well have seen through is a common and frustrating result, and it is the difference between 34 and a place in the world's top ten.
A small team, a big result
Slovakia sends the same six contestants as every other country, from a far smaller population than most of the nations above it in the table. Two gold medals in two years from one of those six places is the strongest sustained individual result a team of that size can produce.
The olympiad's country standings are the unofficial sum of six scores, so a contestant who reliably delivers in the mid-thirties is the backbone of a small nation's position rather than a decorative extra.
What gold is worth
Medals are allocated by proportion. At most half the field receives one, in roughly a one to two to three ratio of gold to silver to bronze, which puts gold within reach of about one contestant in twelve in any given year.
Because the threshold moves with the difficulty of the paper, the interesting comparison across years is rank rather than score. Twelfth and twentieth in fields of 630 and 666 place Bachniček in the top three per cent of the world's competing school mathematicians twice over.
What is documented, and what is not
Documented by the olympiad's official database: both years, both host cities, the field sizes, Slovakia as his country, the per-problem scores, the totals, the ranks and the two gold medals.
Not documented: his age or date of birth, which is why this page carries no birth year; his school or town; his national selection results; and anything about him since the 2026 competition. The Slovak spelling of his surname carries a hacek on the c, which is how it appears in the official results.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matej Bachniček | Slovakia | IMO 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 and 36 points at IMO 2025 on the Sunshine Coast, ranked twelfth
- Gold and 34 points at IMO 2026 in Shanghai, ranked twentieth
- 2025 per-problem scores 7, 7, 1, 7, 7, 7; 2026 scores 7, 1, 5, 7, 7, 7
- Competed for Slovakia in both years
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- No age, date of birth or school in these sources
- No Slovak press coverage was collected for this file
- Nothing documented after the 2026 competition
Questions people ask about Matej Bachniček
What has Matej Bachniček won?
Gold medals at the International Mathematical Olympiad in 2025 and 2026, representing Slovakia.
How old is Matej Bachniček?
No age or date of birth appears in the sources used here.
What were his scores?
36 out of 42 in 2025, for twelfth place, and 34 out of 42 in 2026, for twentieth.
Which problems cost him marks?
The third in 2025, where he scored one point, and the second in 2026, where he also scored one.
Did he solve the hardest problem?
In 2026 he scored full marks on the sixth problem, the hardest of the competition.
Is Matej Bachniček on Wikipedia?
No standalone English article is recorded for him in this file.
How is his name spelled?
Matej Bachniček, with a hacek on the c. English coverage often drops it, as Matej Bachnicek.
Where is Matej Bachniček now?
The sources used here do not say.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Bachniček’s story?
How many IMO gold medals has Matej Bachniček won?
What was his score in 2025?
Which problem did he fully solve in 2026 that most contestants do not?
Sources
- IMO 2026 individual results — International Mathematical Olympiad (official), 2026
- IMO 2025 individual results — International Mathematical Olympiad (official), 2025
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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