上周，美国队终于结束在一年一度的国际数学奥林匹克竞赛上连续21年颗粒无收的惨况——迎来了他们的第一座冠军奖杯。美国队的这次获胜打破了长久以来由中国队占据的主导地位，在此期间中国队仅有一次位于第二名之后（今年中国队为第二名）。直到1985年中国队才首次参与国际数学奥林匹克竞赛，所以创下的记录是令人印象深刻的：中国队几乎赢了三分之二参加过的比赛。

　　不科学！美国21年后击败中国 奥数夺冠

　　The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a competition for high schoolers around the world. The U.S. ranks 36 of 65 countries and economies on math proficiency among 15-year-olds, according to the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment, but those rankings are based on populationwide statistics; the IMO pits countries’ very top tier against one another. The U.S. picks its six-person team through a series of tests. These aren’t the standardized tests students take at the end of the year. U.S. students take three tests: the AMC (multiple choice), the AIME (all answers are integers between 0 and 999) and the USAMO (six questions, all proof-based). Any student in eighth through 12th grade can choose to take the AMC, but to take any subsequent tests, students must score high on the preceding one. The students who do best on the USAMO are invited to a summer camp for training, and the final squad is chosen from among the attendees.

　　国际数学奥林匹克竞赛(IMO)是一个面向全世界中学生的竞赛。根据2012年的国际学生能力评估项目可知，美国15岁中学生的数学能力在65个国家和地区中排名第36，但是这些排名是基于群体范围的统计数据的；国际数学奥林匹克竞赛使得国家之间为了排名而激烈竞争。美国队的六名队员经过了一系列的测验。这可不是一般学生们年末的标准化测试。美国学生总共参加三次考试：美国数学竞赛（多种选择）、美国数学邀请赛（所有答案都是0到999之间的整数）和美国数学奥林匹克（六道都是证明题）。任何八到十二年级的学生都可以选择参加AMC，但是只有在这场考试中获得高分才能有资格参加后两场考试。在USAMO考试中表现最为优异的学生们将会受邀参加一个暑期训练营，而最后参加竞赛的队员就是在这些参与者中选出。

　　More and more countries are participating in the IMO — 104 this year — but top places are dominated by a small number of countries. While formerly competitive countries such as Hungary and Romania have fallen behind, China, Russia and the U.S. have held the top three slots in a third of the competitions since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

　　越来越多的国家正前来参加国际数学奥林匹克竞赛——今年已经达到了104个国家——但是前几名往往是被一小部分的国家所占领。但是以前那些极具竞争力的国家：比如匈牙利和罗马尼亚现在已经远远落后，而在苏联解体之后，中国、俄罗斯和美国已经在三分之一的比赛中占据了前三名的宝座。

　　Although the U.S. had been mostly shut out from the top prize, the Americans have put up incredible individual results. The IMO awards gold medals to contestants whose scores place them in approximately the top 8 percent of competitors.3 Since the U.S. began competing in 1974, it has won 109 gold medals, putting it in second place overall. The U.S. ties the USSR for the third-highest rate of gold medals won per competition participated in (2.7 medals), behind China (4.6) and Russia (3.6).

　　虽然美国几乎一直在冠军门外徘徊，但是美国人有着令人难以置信的个人成果。国际数学奥林匹克竞赛将金牌颁给那些成绩能够进入大约前8%的参赛选手。美国自1974年开始参加国际数学奥林匹克竞赛，如今已经获得109块金牌，总数而言位居第二。美国与苏联并列为获得金牌第三多的国家——每场比赛获得2.7块金牌——位于每场比赛获得4.6块金牌的中国和3.6块的俄罗斯之后。