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A 16-year-old schoolboy who lives in Marbella has won the bronze medal representing Spain in the International Mathematics Olympiads which was held in Bath, England from 11 to 22 July.
Maxim Dudik was born in Russia but has been living with his family in Marbella for some time, where he studies at the German School. Maxim's father is a lawyer and his mother is a programmer.
Maxim decided to voluntarily submit himself to two days of intense exams. In a team made up of six members, he was the only Andalusian representative and he demonstrated his talent for numbers by winning the bronze medal.
In two days (16 and 17 July), participants are given four and a half hours to solve problems. The rules are simple. More than 100 countries take part and each country has a team of six young people. They have to be under 20 years old and cannot have already started a university degree.
Spain has a good pool of youngsters, but it is not normally one of the leading countries, at least not until now. The medals usually go to the United States, China or Germany, for example. "I'm very happy with the result," he says in a telephone conversation with SUR, while waiting for the plane to bring him back to Malaga.
Maxim has been preparing intensively. Like an athlete who aspires to become a record holder, the young man has been studying intensively for several months. "Between four and five hours a day. The last week before the Olympics we all went to Catalonia to train," he explains.
Maxim will move on next year to what would be the equivalent of the second year of baccalaureate. Although in the final stages of preparation, the young man says that mathematics is his great passion. "You have to like it to train as intensely as we have", he says.
Other than mathematics, Maxim says, "I love football". In fact, he watched the final of the European Championship in "hostile territory" and did not hesitate to celebrate Spain's victory over England. For the rest of the summer he has plans like any other young man of his age: "Spending a lot of time on the beach, which is a ten-minute walk from my house."
One of the factors that has made a difference for Maxim is his participation in the Mathematical Ingenuity Workshop run by Professor Cristina Draper, from the Department of Algebra, Geometry and Topology at the University of Malaga (UMA).
In teh future he is considering studying computer science, although he does not yet know whether he will study at the UMA or go abroad. With the baccalaureate that he will obtain at the German School, he can apply to any university in Germany.
Maxim's experience in this type of competition is extensive. He represented Andalucía in the national phase of the Youth Olympiad last year. He won the gold medal at the Spanish Mathematics Olympics in Calatayud.
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