The two gold medals
The 2025 International Mathematical Olympiad was held on the Sunshine Coast in Australia and drew 630 contestants. The competition's official individual results list Budnik under Israel with a total of 35 points and a gold medal, at rank 27. The same table shows his marks problem by problem, the only detailed account of his performance that exists in public.
A year later the olympiad moved to Shanghai, in the People's Republic of China, for its 67th edition, with 666 contestants on the official list. Budnik scored 33 and finished 23rd, gold again. Twenty-two competitors on the planet placed above him that year.
How an IMO scoreboard is built
Each contestant faces six problems, listed on the results page as P1 through P6, and each is marked out of seven points. The maximum is 42. Budnik's two totals, 35 and 33, sit in the band where gold medals were awarded in both years, according to the award column of the official tables.
Ranks are shared when totals match, which is why the results read as joint placings rather than a clean ladder. His rank of 27 in 2025 was shared with Mikhail Raikhman of Belarus, who also finished on 35 points.
A lower score, a higher place
The two results invite a comparison that the tables make plainly. Budnik scored two points fewer in 2026 than in 2025, and yet climbed four places, from 27th to 23rd. Rank at the IMO is a function of the rest of the room: a hard paper compresses scores, and a total that would place mid-table one year can sit higher the next.
The field itself has grown across the editions consulted here. The official individual results record 609 contestants in Bath in 2024, 630 on the Sunshine Coast in 2025 and 666 in Shanghai in 2026.
What is documented - and what is not
The documentation behind this page is narrow and official: two results tables published by the olympiad itself. They give a name, a country, six problem scores, a total, a rank and a medal. They do not give a birth year, a school, a city, a photograph or a quotation.
No Wikipedia article on Budnik was found, and no interview or news profile appears in the sources used here. Geniuses.club does not fill those gaps with guesses. Where a competitor is a minor, an absent detail is treated as a fact about the record, not about the person.
Why a second gold is the hard one
The IMO results are organised by country, each contestant carrying a national code, which is how one name can be followed from year to year. Budnik appears under Israel in both 2025 and 2026, which means two separate national selections and two separate sets of six unfamiliar problems.
That repetition, rather than any single score, is the achievement. A field of 666 produces exactly one top 25, and the mathematicians who occupy it are largely replaced each summer as competitors age out of eligibility. Holding a place in it across consecutive years, on two different continents, is the rarer line on the table.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yotam Budnik | Israel | 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 medal and 35 points, rank 27 of 630, at the 2025 IMO in Australia (IMO official individual results)
- Gold medal and 33 points, rank 23 of 666, at the 67th IMO in Shanghai in 2026 (IMO official individual results)
- Competed for Israel in both years, as recorded in the official country column
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- No published birth year, age, school or home city
- No Wikipedia article, interview or news profile found
- No information on what he has done since the 2026 olympiad
Questions people ask about Yotam Budnik
How old is Yotam Budnik?
No source used here gives his birth year or age. The IMO publishes names, countries and scores, not dates of birth.
What is Yotam Budnik known for?
Two gold medals at the International Mathematical Olympiad, won for Israel in 2025 and 2026.
What did Yotam Budnik score at the IMO?
35 points out of 42 in 2025, ranked 27th, and 33 points in 2026, ranked 23rd. Both results carried gold medals.
Where were those olympiads held?
The 2025 IMO took place on the Sunshine Coast in Australia with 630 contestants. The 2026 edition, the 67th, was held in Shanghai, China, with 666.
Is Yotam Budnik on Wikipedia?
No Wikipedia article on him was found. His public record consists of the IMO's own results tables.
Who are Yotam Budnik's parents, and where does he study?
No source used here names his family, his school or his home city, and Geniuses.club does not publish unsourced personal detail about young competitors.
How is the IMO scored?
Six problems, each marked out of seven points, for a maximum of 42. Contestants who finish on the same total share a rank.
Where is Yotam Budnik now?
Nothing beyond the 2026 result appears in the sources used here. No university, career or later competition has been documented.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Yotam’s story?
How many points did Yotam Budnik score at the 2025 IMO?
Where was the 67th IMO, at which he won his second gold, held?
What is the maximum possible score at the IMO?
Sources
- IMO 2025 - individual results — International Mathematical Olympiad (official), 2025
- 67th IMO 2026 - individual results — International Mathematical Olympiad (official), 2026
- IMO 2024 - individual results — International Mathematical Olympiad (official), 2024
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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