Two titles, eight years apart
The championship's own record of champions lists Kolli as the winner in 2005 and again in 2013. Between and around those years the title passed through other hands: the journalist Joshua Foer took it in 2006, John Graham won in 2022 and 2023, and Nelson Dellis won in 2024 before Wesley Twiggs took the 2025 title.
A gap of eight years between titles is the detail that distinguishes his record. Memory sport rewards continuous training on specific systems, and the technical standard rises year on year as competitors publish and refine their methods. Winning under the standard of 2005 and again under that of 2013 means having rebuilt, not merely maintained.
What the championship demands
The USA Memory Championship was founded in 1997 by Tony Dottino and Marshall Tarley, ran for years as a spring event in New York City, and has been held each autumn at Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida since 2016. The live competition is scored across four events.
Competitors must absorb around 4,000 data points on a set subject and answer progressively harder questions on it; memorise 300 randomised words inside fifteen minutes; meet six guests at a tea party and answer questions about them afterwards; and, in the closing event, recall the order of 104 shuffled cards memorised in five minutes. Online qualifying rounds test cards, image sequences, names and faces, digit sequences and word lists.
Moonwalking with Einstein
Joshua Foer's book Moonwalking with Einstein, an account of the year he spent training for and then winning the 2006 championship, is the work that introduced most English-language readers to the sport. The research record behind this page notes that Kolli appears in it.
That is a meaningful footnote. Foer's book is the reason a small American competition has a global readership, and the competitors described in it are the ones whose names still surface when anyone searches for memory technique two decades later.
Superhuman, and Mike Tyson
In June 2017 the entertainment site Monsters and Critics published an exclusive clip from the television series Superhuman in which Kolli, billed as a former USA memory champion, faced Mike Tyson in a memory challenge. The headline framed it as Kolli taking on Tyson as a chef.
Television treatments of memory sport tend toward the stunt, and this is one. It is included here because it is a sourced public appearance and because it illustrates the only route the discipline generally has to a mass audience: a champion, a celebrity, and a format built around the moment of recall.
Vingt questions, huit minutes au chronomètre et un centile mesuré face à tous ceux qui l’ont passé. Sans inscription.
Passer le test de QI →What is documented and what is not
Documented: that he won the USA Memory Championship in 2005 and in 2013, per the championship's own list of champions; the structure, history and venue of the competition; and his appearance on the television series Superhuman, reported by Monsters and Critics in June 2017.
Not documented in these sources: his age or date of birth, his home city, his occupation, his scores in any event, how he trained, and anything about him after 2017. His appearance in Moonwalking with Einstein comes from the research record. No IQ figure appears in this file; memory sport measures trained technique against a clock, not intelligence.
| Personne | Pays | Étape | Âge / Donnée |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simon Reinhard | Allemagne | Vainqueur du Extreme Memory Tournament en 2014 et 2016 | 35 ans |
| Ram Kolli | États-Unis | Vainqueur du championnat de mémoire des États-Unis en 2005 et à nouveau en 2013 | — |
| Scott Hagwood | États-Unis | Vainqueur du championnat de mémoire des États-Unis quatre années consécutives | — |
| Oyun-Erdene Tsengelbayar | Mongolie | Or en nombres parlés à la Memoriad 2024 | — |
| Tatiana Cooley-Marquardt | États-Unis | Vainqueur du championnat de mémoire des États-Unis trois fois | — |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- Won the USA Memory Championship in 2005 and again in 2013, per the championship's own champions list
- The championship was founded in 1997 and has run at Full Sail University in Orlando since 2016
- Appeared on the television series Superhuman opposite Mike Tyson (Monsters and Critics, 26 June 2017)
- Its closing event requires recall of 104 shuffled cards memorised in five minutes
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- His appearance in Moonwalking with Einstein comes from the research record, not the cited sources
- No age, home city, occupation or event scores appear in these sources
- Nothing in this record documents anything about him after 2017
Questions people ask about Ram Kolli
What is Ram Kolli known for?
Winning the USA Memory Championship twice, in 2005 and again in 2013.
How old is Ram Kolli?
No age or date of birth appears in any source used for this page.
What does the USA Memory Championship involve?
Four live events: absorbing around 4,000 data points on a set subject, memorising 300 random words in fifteen minutes, a tea party with six guests, and recalling 104 shuffled cards memorised in five minutes.
Is Ram Kolli in Moonwalking with Einstein?
The research record behind this page says he appears in Joshua Foer's book, which describes the year Foer spent training for and winning the 2006 championship.
Did Ram Kolli appear on television?
Yes. Monsters and Critics published a clip in June 2017 of him facing Mike Tyson in a memory challenge on the series Superhuman.
Who else has won the USA Memory Championship?
Joshua Foer in 2006, John Graham in 2022 and 2023, Nelson Dellis in 2024 and Wesley Twiggs in 2025, among others.
Where is Ram Kolli now?
Nothing in the sources used here documents anything about him after 2017.
Is Ram Kolli on Wikipedia?
He appears in the USA Memory Championship's list of winners. No standalone English Wikipedia article for him is recorded here.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Ram’s story?
In which years did Ram Kolli win the USA Memory Championship?
Which celebrity did he face on the series Superhuman?
How many cards must be recalled in the championship's final event?
Sources
- Champions - USA Memory Championship — USA Memory Championship (official)
- Former USA memory champion Ram Kolli bada bings 'chef' Mike Tyson in exclusive Superhuman clip — Monsters and Critics, 2017-06-26
- USA Memory Championship — Wikipedia (USA Memory Championship)
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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