2023-08-06 01:14:18
Brazil has not given much joy in the last World Cups – but, when it comes to scientific Olympics, the country does not stop accumulating titles.
A Brazilian team has just won (another) International Economics Olympiad — taking its fourth championship home and becoming the biggest winner of the competition since it was created in 2018.
This year’s edition took place in Greece, brought together delegations from 48 countries and lasted 10 days, in which participants took three tests — two individual and one in a group. The first is economic theory, with questions regarding macro and micro economics, game theory and behavioral economics, for example.
The second is finance: participants have access to a Bloomberg terminal and need to choose the best capital allocation according to some scenarios given by the competition. One of the scenarios this year was to be positioned on interest rates in Russia at a time when there is a supply shock that affects the price of oil.
The third test is a business case in Group. At this year’s Olympics, teams had to decide whether or not to participate in a PPP in Greece.
Brazil’s victory was tight.
The country won with a margin of just 0.8 points in relation to second place, Indonesia, the competition’s underdog. (The Asian country had never been on the podium of any of the other editions). Third place was Canada.
Brazil was in first place in practically all the last editions. It took the gold trophy in 2019, 2020 and 2021 and came in second last year when the United States won the competition.
For Raphael Zimmerman, the leader of the Brazilian delegation (a kind of coach for the participants), the victory shows “the potential that Brazil has in terms of talent.”
“We are very proud of the performance we have had in recent years, beating countries that have a great tradition in the economy. And winning four times is very clear that it’s not luck. We have a lot of talent that we can leverage,” said Raphael.
The scientific Olympics agenda still has a lot to grow in Brazil, however.
In the United States, participation in scientific olympiads, especially in mathematics, is a factor that weighs heavily in the application of students to universities and in the selection process of some companies.
“Quantitative funds, for example, look a lot at IMO [International Mathematical Olympiad] when hiring,” said Raphael. “In Brazil, companies and academia still don’t have this culture.”
There is also a lack of greater encouragement from elementary schools — public and private — for student participation in this type of competition.
The good news is that the Olympics can gain even more visibility in Brazil. According to Raphael, the Brazilian delegation received an approach from the organization of the event suggesting that Brazil host next year’s competition, given the country’s history in the competition.
“We have two weeks to give them an answer. The biggest bottleneck is funding, because it involves organizing an international event for over 400 people. But it’s a very good opportunity,” he said.
In addition to Raphael, the team of economics athletes included seven other students: Leonardo Zanetti Souza, Lucas Monteiro Rivelli, Luiz Filipe Peres, Nicolas Goulart, Pedro Porto de Carvalho Nunes, Renato Timoteo Wanderley, and Vitor Alexandre Camargo.
The group underwent extensive preparation with Bain & Company before the competition and was also sponsored by BTG Pactual, which financed the trip to Greece and provided training within the bank.
The seven selected for the competition had to go through a national stage in which more than 20,000 students competed to reach the top eight that made up the Brazilian team.
Peter Arbex
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