1934 and 1935, the former Soviet Union began to hold middle school mathematics competitions in Leningrad and Moscow, and named them Mathematical Olympics. 1959 Romanian mathematical physics society invited middle school students from eastern European countries to participate in the first international mathematical olympiad held in Bucharest. Since then, it has been held once a year and has been held for 50 times.
The scope of Olympic Mathematics is beyond the level of compulsory education in all countries. Some topics are much more difficult than the college entrance examination, and some topics are even difficult for mathematicians. Through such a high-level competition, we can find mathematical talents as early as possible, and then train them to make them stand out.
In recent years, many famous universities and key middle schools at home and abroad pay more attention to the talents of Olympic Mathematics, and usually select outstanding students through Olympic Mathematics. Universities such as Peking University, Tsinghua and Fudan University have a preference for students with outstanding Olympic Mathematics. Every year, many students who have achieved excellent results in the national high school mathematics competition directly enter the mathematics department of Peking University without taking the exam.
Due to the importance attached by universities and key middle schools to Olympiad talents, the word Olympiad appeared again in primary schools in recent years. The full name of primary school Olympic mathematics is "primary school Olympic mathematics" or "primary school mathematical Olympics". The name comes from "Mathematics is the gymnastics of thinking", which embodies the commonality between mathematics and the Olympic spirit: faster, higher and stronger. In fact, it should be called "primary school competition mathematics" more accurately.