China lost its sixth consecutive International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) on Monday, trailing the US by two points, but young genius Shi Haojia once again achieved a perfect score in the world’s premier high school maths competition.
中国在周一失去了连续第六届国际数学奥林匹克（IMO），以两分之差落后于美国，但年轻的天才史浩佳再次在世界顶级高中数学竞赛中取得满分。

Haojia, from the eastern province of Zhejiang, scored a perfect seven points in each of the competition’s six problems – the only one to do so out of the 609 students from 108 countries who gathered in Bath, Britain for the 65th IMO.
来自浙江省东部的浩佳在比赛的六个问题中每个都得到了满分七分——在来自 108 个国家的 609 名学生中，他是唯一一个做到这一点的人，他们齐聚英国巴斯参加第 65 届 IMO。

In the team rankings, the US took first place with 192 points while the Chinese team came second, with a total score of 190.
在团队排名中，美国以 192 分获得第一名，而中国队以总分 190 分获得第二名。

Since the first IMO was held in 1959 in Romania with teams from seven countries taking part, the competition has gradually expanded to more than 100 countries from five continents, with each country sending a team of up to six high school students.
自 1959 年在罗马尼亚举行第一届国际数学奥林匹克竞赛（IMO），有来自七个国家的队伍参加以来，这项比赛逐渐扩展到来自五大洲的 100 多个国家，每个国家派出最多六名高中生组成的队伍。

China has maintained a competitive momentum at the event over the past three decades, winning its first title in 1989 and taking the top spot a total of 24 times.
在过去的三十年里，中国在这项赛事中保持了竞争势头，1989 年首次夺冠，并总共 24 次获得冠军。

Haojia is a second-year student at the privately owned Hailiang Senior High School in the city of Shaoxing, Zhejiang. His competition coach Zhang Xiaoming, who is also the school’s principal, last year described him as a rare mathematical genius.
浩嘉是浙江省绍兴市私立海亮高级中学的二年级学生。他的竞赛教练张晓明也是该校校长，去年曾形容他为罕见的数学天才。

In an article published by the school after Haojia’s achievement at the 2023 IMO, Zhang said that if the student had an outstanding characteristic, “it is that his driving force for learning comes from his love for mathematics rather than other external things”.
在学校发表的一篇关于浩嘉在 2023 年国际数学奥林匹克竞赛中取得成就的文章中，张老师表示，如果这名学生有一个突出的特点，“那就是他学习的动力来自于他对数学的热爱，而不是其他外在的东西”。

According to publicly available information, Haojia was born in a rural part of the central inland province of Henan, moving to Zhejiang when he was nine years old.
根据公开信息，浩嘉出生在中部内陆省份河南的一个农村地区，九岁时搬到了浙江。

He showed a keen interest and talent for mathematics from a very young age. While he was still a primary school student, Haojia was already helping his junior high school sister with her maths homework.
他从小就表现出对数学的浓厚兴趣和天赋。在他还是一名小学生的时候，浩嘉已经在帮助他的初中姐姐做数学作业。

At the age of 10, he won a gold medal in a national primary school maths competition. His gift for maths was discovered when he was in grade 5, and since then he has been trained for maths competitions.
10 岁时，他在全国小学数学竞赛中获得金牌。他的数学天赋在五年级时被发现，从那时起他就开始接受数学竞赛的培训。

In 2021, Haojia was selected for the YAU Mathematical Sciences Leaders Programme at Tsinghua University, which recruits middle and high school students with outstanding potential from around the world and trains them from undergraduate to doctoral studies.
2021 年，浩嘉被清华大学姚班数学科学领军人才计划选中，该计划从世界各地招募具有杰出潜力的中学生，并对他们进行从本科到博士阶段的培养。

Robotics scientist Geng Tao, who used to work at a British university and is now the founder of a start-up, said China’s loss of first place this time was likely to be temporary.
曾在英国大学工作的机器人科学家耿涛，现在是一家初创公司的创始人，他表示，中国这次失去第一的位置可能是暂时的。

He said China had a large talent pool, and Chinese families tended to take such competitions more seriously.
他说，中国有大量的人才库，而且中国家庭往往更重视此类比赛。

Geng said the Chinese government was also more willing to mobilise the country’s resources to achieve certain goals – such as winning gold medals at the Olympics – which would also help the country maintain its lead in the mathematics race in the long run.
耿涛表示，中国政府也更愿意动员国家资源来实现某些目标——比如在奥运会上赢得金牌——这也将有助于中国在长期内保持其在数学竞赛中的领先地位。

According to Geng, students from China and India also showed more interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) than their US counterparts, who were more likely to major in subjects such as finance, law and medicine.
根据耿涛的说法，中国和印度的学生对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）更感兴趣，而美国的学生更有可能主修金融、法律和医学等学科。

China is a main source of STEM talent, producing a large number of scientists, engineers and technicians working in the US today.
中国是 STEM 人才的主要来源，今天在美国工作的科学家、工程师和技术人员中有很大一部分来自中国。

But despite China’s impressive performance, some academics – including Chinese-American mathematician Yau Shing-Tung – warn that the country still lagged the United States in mathematics research.
但尽管中国表现出色，一些学者——包括华裔美国数学家丘成桐——警告说，中国在数学研究方面仍然落后于美国。