Thirty-nine out of forty-two
The olympiad is six problems, seven points each, split over two days of four and a half hours. A perfect paper is 42. Xiao's row, as published by the organisers, reads 7, 7, 4, 7, 7, 7. Five complete solutions and substantial partial credit on the third problem, which is one of the two positions on the paper reserved for the hardest questions.
A four out of seven is a specific kind of mark. It is not a blank page and not a near miss; it is a script with real progress in it that stopped short of a full argument. Three points were the whole distance between Xiao and 42, and the coordinators who mark the scripts assigned them problem by problem.
Ninth of 666
The 2026 field ran to 666 contestants. Seven of them scored a perfect 42: 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. Arina Prokudina took eighth place on 41. Xiao's 39 came next.
The top of an olympiad table compresses quickly. Between the maximum and Xiao's total lie three points, and inside those three points sit eight contestants out of six hundred and sixty-six. A place in single figures at the IMO is decided by that margin rather than by any broad difference in ability.
A result published by the competition itself
Olympiad results carry a kind of authority that press coverage rarely does. The organisers publish the table: name, country, six scores, total, rank, medal. Every figure has been through the coordination process, in which each script is marked against a published scheme and the marks are agreed between the jury and the team leaders before they are entered.
What the table does not do is describe the person. Xiao appears under Singapore with six numbers beside his name, and that is the whole of the documented record in this file. The entry carries no age, no school, no photograph and no quotation.
What is documented — and what is not
Firm: the 39-point total, the per-problem breakdown, ninth place, the gold medal, the country, the year and the host city of Shanghai. All of it is published by the International Mathematical Olympiad.
Open: no birth year, no age, no school and no city. Nothing in the sources gathered here says whether Xiao competed at earlier olympiads, whether he returned in later years, or what he intends to study. The research record lists an alternative form of his name, Brian Xiao, which is how he may appear in national coverage; no such coverage is included among the sources used for this page.
What a Singapore gold is worth
Every country at the IMO sends at most six contestants, so a single gold medal represents the top of an entire national pipeline in a given year. The selection runs through school-level competitions, a national olympiad and training camps, and the six who travel are the end of that process rather than the beginning.
Gold at the olympiad is awarded to approximately the top twelfth of the field, a band that in 2026 stretched from the perfect papers down to totals far below Xiao's. Recording the place alongside the medal is the only way to keep the distinction: ninth in the world is a result in its own right, and the medal alone does not convey it.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boyang Brian Xiao | Singapore | Five problems solved outright, four points on the sixth, and ninth place i | — |
| 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
- 39 points of 42 at IMO 2026 in Shanghai, ninth place, gold medal (official IMO results)
- Per-problem scores of 7, 7, 4, 7, 7, 7
- Competed for Singapore in a field of 666 contestants
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- No age, birth year, school or city appears in these sources
- No national press coverage is included among the sources for this page
- No record of earlier or later olympiad appearances
Questions people ask about Boyang Brian Xiao
What did Boyang Brian Xiao achieve?
A gold medal for Singapore at the 2026 International Mathematical Olympiad in Shanghai, with 39 points out of 42 and ninth place among 666 contestants.
What was his score on each problem?
Seven out of seven on problems one, two, four, five and six, and four out of seven on problem three.
How old is Boyang Brian Xiao?
No source in this record gives his age or birth year. The official results table publishes names, countries, scores, ranks and medals only.
Is Brian Xiao the same person?
Yes. The research record lists Brian Xiao as an alternative form of his name.
Who finished above him?
Seven contestants with perfect scores of 42 and Arina Prokudina on 41.
How many contestants were there in 2026?
666, according to the official IMO results for that year.
Is Boyang Brian Xiao on Wikipedia?
No Wikipedia article was found for him. The source used here is the official IMO results table.
Where is Boyang Brian Xiao 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 Xiao’s story?
How many points did Boyang Brian Xiao score at IMO 2026?
Which country did he represent?
On which problem did he drop marks?
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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