Interesting Stories on our Math Olympians

From AoPS, IMO 2013 subforum on Perfect Score Candidates, on 26 July 2013, hours before final results were officially released on IMO website. Lim Jeck (aka oneplusone) had some fun with fellow AoPSians.

manuel153: I went over the current partial results (3rd file of Dmitin), and I extracted all 25 contestants who still have a chance for a perfect score: [the list follows]
MathD: No perfect scorers for USA. Mark Sellke and Bobby Shen both got 0 at #3. Jeck Lim has 77777*.
mathman523:  Noooo :(  Now I'm hoping for Calvin Deng.
dnkywin: I know for a fact that Calvin Deng did not get a perfect score. Sorry to disappoint. On the other hand, I did hear that Jeck Lim got his second straight perfect score.
oneplusone: This is the second time Lim Jeck got this score ;)
mathman523: Wow congratulations to him!
yugrey: Of course dnkywin is Calvin Deng and oneplusone is Lim Jeck. :)
theSA: wow 42... twice... find your place in hall of fame
oneplusone: There seems to be some misunderstanding from my earlier post, hahaha.
sunny2000: congratulations to oneplusone!
ssilwa: @sunny, read the posts, @oneplusone: Yes, unless jeck lim likes talking about himself in third person
jaydoubleuel: I just heard that Jeck Lim failed to get 7 on P6.
yugrey: So Jeck Lim got a 40 like he did in 2011. Did he lose both points on #6?

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On 22 July (23 July Singapore), Colombia, the night before the IMO competition day 1. The Singapore team was relaxing and chilling next to the pool, enjoying the Carribean breeze. Lim Jeck said, "This IMO is going to be a breeze."

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Mavis, mother of David Lin, has the following story to share about him:

在他15个月左右，他天天数着组屋楼下柱子上的数字，一遍又一遍，不厌其烦，不肯回家，好像是1到13，那时我妈要回家煮饭，没办法只好带他回家，家里没有什么数字的东西，我妈只好用一根绳子，变各种数字给他看，后来上了幼儿园，老师叫大家画图画，他居然整个画画的都是数字，老师还担心的找我谈一次话，要我多注意培养孩子的多方面才能。

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Actual questions from zaobao reporter, and actual replies from Lim Jeck:

Q. How do you feel getting Gold award for three consecutive years?
A. I feel relieved for not screwing up. I feel that I can solve any Olympiad problems.

Q.You have been participating for five years and this is the last year, any significant lesson learnt from this journey?
A. Olympiad Maths is fun and interesting, much more so than normal maths.

Q. What do you intend to study in University? Which Uni you intend to go?
A. Maths/Computing. Maybe NUS or Cambridge, will think about it next year.

Q. How do you feel getting into the Hall of Fame as the ONLY Singaporean student?
A. Every IMO participant is in the hall of fame. I am just the only one in the first page ;)

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Story about the mums: 

在这里说说小故事。我们6个参赛者的妈妈，自从孩子出国参赛后，弄个whatsapp group "IMO 2013 mums"。每天从早到晚，开开心心地在whatsapp 东南西北聊得不亦乐乎，后来还加了在哥伦比亚的负责老师进来。因为时差关系，他早上我们晚上，我们晚上跟他说 ‘早安’。有时我们星期三他星期二，反正弄到大家很乱。当我们的孩子正在绞尽脑汁答试题时，我们大伙还在嘻嘻哈哈开玩笑。上个星期六早上，紧张时刻到了。我们其实已经大概知道新加坡队员的分数了，是40分，30分，4个28分。因为正在举行Jury Meeting，金银铜牌的分数线在Jury Voting 一通过后，成绩就会第一时间在网站公布。去年和前年的金牌分数线是28，如果今年一样，就是6块金牌了！大家在讨论，他们下星期回来，我们该到哪间高级餐馆庆祝呀。大家还一直不断refresh results webpage，看成绩公布了没。。。。。 忽然，有人打字，出了出了。哎呀，金牌线是31分，新加坡获得1金5银。如有一桶冷水，淋在大家身上。还好，没事没事，大家很快就收拾好心情，现在正忙着搞个IMO family聚会呢。。。明年，她们5位的孩子还有机会参加IMO，我相信会有很大的看头。哈哈，让我们期待新加坡明年拿到今年没能得到的6面金牌吧！