When Alex Gunning achieved a perfect score in the Australian Mathematical Olympiad in February, people were understandably amazed by the year 10 student.
When the 16-year-old doubled down with a similarly unblemished effort (and first place finish) in the more challenging Asian Pacific Mathematics Olympiad in March, they were suitably astounded. But when the young whiz from Glen Waverley Secondary College topped those performances last month, winning a gold medal and finishing eighth in the world at the prestigious International Mathematical Olympiad in Colombia, the only reaction left for anyone who knew him was pride.
I am not surprised that very few people have heard of this since this young bloke neither kicks a piece of inflated pig skin around nor is a bogan doing something stupid. More is the pity since he obviously has something to offer the world.
Imagine how well he will do using his dominant hand.
It’s always struck me as sad that if this guy was a sportsman we would send him to the AIS but usually academically inclined pupils aren’t given special treatment because it might harm the self esteem of the other pupils
Absolutely but as it is he is at an outer suburban high school – albeit one of the better ones. My guess is that one of the uni’s will pick him up and start streaming him into university if they have not already done so.
I read somewhere that every gold medal we had won at an olympics had cost us around $20mil each courtesy of the AIS and the publics largesse. Interestingly if I anyone goes back to do further study it costs them a fortune – go to uni and you have to pay – go to the AIS and become wealthy off endorsements you make and you dont pay a cent back……