Thirty-five, and nothing higher
The IMO marks six problems out of seven each, for a maximum of 42. In most years several contestants reach it. In 2017 nobody did, and the top of the table settled at 35: five complete solutions and a zero. Sabour's row reads 7, 7, 0, 7, 7, 7.
So does Takaya's. So does Hoàng's. Three contestants, three countries, and the same six numbers in the same order. The 58th olympiad was decided not by who solved the most but by who solved everything except the one problem nobody could touch.
The problem that beat the field
Problem three of the 2017 paper is the reason the year looks the way it does. The official scores show it returning nothing for a very large part of the field, on the order of several hundred contestants, and it took the same toll on the three leaders as on everyone else. It is the third problem on the first day, the position the organisers reserve for the hardest question they have.
The consequence is a ranking with an unusual shape. Ordinarily the top of an IMO table is settled by partial credit on the hardest questions; in 2017 the decisive question awarded almost no partial credit at all. What separated the leaders from the rest was not brilliance on the impossible problem but the absence of a single dropped mark anywhere else.
The Iranian team in Rio
Iran's results in 2017 run from Sabour's 35 at rank one down through Aryo Lotfi Jandaghi on 25 at rank thirty-six, Seyed Mohammadsadegh Mahdavi Tikdari on 24, Taha Miran Zadeh on 21, Farhood Rostamkhani on 19 and Soroush Taslimi on 18. Two golds, three silvers and a bronze.
The gold cut-off that year stood at 25 points, which places Jandaghi exactly on the line and Sabour ten marks clear of it. A ten-point gap between the first and second contestant on a national team is unusual, and it is the clearest measure available of how far ahead Sabour finished among his own countrymen as well as the rest of the world.
What the table records — and what it does not
The firm facts come from the organisers: the country, the six problem scores, the total of 35, the rank of one, the gold medal, the year, and the host city of Rio de Janeiro. A competition result published by the competition itself needs no corroboration.
Everything that would make this a biography is missing. The table gives no age, no date of birth, no school, no city and no photograph, and no source gathered here says what Sabour studied afterwards, where he went, or whether he competed again. Those are gaps in what has been published, and they are recorded here as gaps.
Why a shared first place counts fully
A three-way tie at the top invites the question of whether it dilutes the result. The structure of the competition answers it. The IMO does not run a tie-break; all contestants sit the same two papers, and a rank is a statement about the score, not about a head-to-head. Three people finished first in 2017 because three people produced the best paper in the world that week.
What the tie does reveal is the ceiling the organisers had set. A year in which the best score is 35 and three people reach it is a year in which the problems, rather than the contestants, defined the outcome. Sabour, Takaya and Hoàng got as close to the maximum as the 2017 paper allowed anyone to get.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amirmojtaba Sabour | Iran | He finished first in the world in a year when nobody in the field solved p | — |
| 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
- 35 points of 42 at the 58th IMO in 2017, joint 1st, gold medal (official IMO results)
- Per-problem scores of 7, 7, 0, 7, 7, 7, identical to the other two joint leaders
- No contestant scored a perfect 42 in 2017; the field numbered 615
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- No age, birth year, school or city in these sources
- No record of earlier or later olympiad appearances
- No published information about what he has done since 2017
Questions people ask about Amirmojtaba Sabour
What did Amirmojtaba Sabour achieve?
He shared first place in the world at the 2017 International Mathematical Olympiad in Rio de Janeiro, with 35 points out of 42 and a gold medal.
Why was the winning score only 35?
No contestant solved problem three, and the official scores show it returning nothing for a very large part of the 615-strong field. The three leaders scored seven on every other problem.
Who else finished first that year?
Yuta Takaya of Japan and Hoang Huu Quoc Huy of Vietnam, both with the same score sheet: 7, 7, 0, 7, 7, 7.
How old is Amirmojtaba Sabour?
No source in this record gives his age or birth year. The IMO table publishes names, countries, scores, ranks and medals only.
How did Iran do in 2017?
Two golds, three silvers and a bronze. Sabour led with 35, followed by Aryo Lotfi Jandaghi on 25.
Did anyone score 42 in 2017?
No. It was a year without a perfect paper; the highest total was 35.
Is Amirmojtaba Sabour on Wikipedia?
No Wikipedia article was found for him. The source used here is the official IMO results table.
Where is Amirmojtaba Sabour now?
No source in this record says. The documented trail is his row in the 2017 results.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Sabour’s story?
What was the highest score at IMO 2017?
How many contestants shared first place?
Which problem did all three leaders score zero on?
Sources
- IMO 2017 individual results — International Mathematical Olympiad, 2017
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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