A Chinese team secured first place in the team competition of the 64th International Mathematical Olympiad in Japan on July 12, with Shi Haojia from Zhuji county-level city, Shaoxing, winning a gold medal.

Shi, a first-year student at Hailiang Senior High School, was one of six Chinese participants in the competition. He achieved a perfect score and became the first student from Shaoxing to win a gold medal at the IMO.

At the age of 15, Shi was discovered by his coach during fifth grade in primary school due to his exceptional talent in mathematics. He then moved to Zhuji to study.

When his sister was in eighth grade, she encountered a challenging math problem while doing homework at home. Shi, who was in third grade at that time, took a look at the problem and solved it correctly within just a few minutes, despite the fact that his family had never enrolled him in any supplementary classes.

Almost entirely self-taught, Shi completed the mathematics curriculum for junior high school by the age of nine.