Four times during my years at SJR one of my students was chosen for the six member team representing Canada in the International Mathematical Olympiad. Ka Ping Yee, shown here, completed in 1991 and 1993, and turned down an invitation to compete in 1992 because of another commitment. In 1993 he won a gold medal. The other competitors were Gavin Macbeath in 1987 and Donny Cheung (Bronze medal winner) in 1995. In 1985 Ian Macbeath almost made the team. He was number 7 on the list and was told to have his passport ready in case one of the top six had to drop out.

Ka Ping had a remarkable record of achievement in math contests. He won an honourable mention in the Canadian Olympiad when he was only in Grade 8. In his Grade 9 year he was first in Canada in the Grade 12 Euclid contest -- with a perfect score of 100%. He was one of the very top students in every contest he wrote.

Ian Macbeath was first in Canada on the 1984 Fermat Contest. His brother Gavin, if I recall correctly, was on a Cayley team that won the Canadian championship. In Gavin's Grade 12 year there were three very strong students who placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd in Manitoba on the provincial Grade 12 contest. The other two were Peter Hallam and Mike Newman.

Donny Cheung had a perfect score on the American Math Competition, the only student of mine to ever do this. He also had a perfect score on the Descartes Contest for Grade 13. He appears several times in stories in my book, although I do not name him there. He was the self taught calculus student in Grade 8 who read calculus without hearing the words said aloud. He said "deri-ative" instead of derivative. Five years later, on his Descartes paper, he wrote "monotonous" when he meant "monotonic." He got 100% nonetheless.