Chemical Education International, Vol. 1, No. 1, 21-22, Published in August 31, 2000

Maurice Cosandey
Ch.Etourneaux 1, 1162 Saint-Prex , Switzerland

Thanks to Daniel Torricelli, 16 years old, from Kloten, Switzerland has won a bronze medal at the 3 1 It International Chemistry Olympiad in Bangkok, Thailand. This year, 201 students from 5 1 countries were competing for gold, silver, and bronze medals from July 4-12, 1999. The competitors had two days of hard work: one day (5 h) for practical work, and another day (5 h) for solving theoretical problems. After correction and arbitration, the best 10% got gold medals, 20% got silver, and 30% bronze. It seems to the reviewer that the level of difficulty gets higher every year. In 1999, it was about corresponding to a second-year universitv course. The olympie problems are reported in the annex for the benefit of the interested reader.

As a rule, all participating nations must first select their best four students by any suitable method. The candidates must not yet be registered at a university, and they have to be under the age of 20 at the beginning of the olympiad. In Switzerland, the first two training weekends took place at the universities of NeuchAtel and Fribour in winter 1999. The national selection was made at the end of the preparation week at Easter time in the Gymnase de Chamblandes, Pully-Lausanne. Then, on the last weekend in June, the four selected candidates had a last training session with microscale equipment.

The Swiss team was made of the following students:

- Aurele Aubert, Gymnase de Cham blandes, Pully, born 23.2.1981
- Jean Garnier, Gymnase de la Cite Lausanne, born 2.7.1981
-Stefan Malar Kantonsschule Romans horn born 27.2.1980
- Daniel Torricelli, Kantonsschule Oer likon, born 25.9.1982

The two accompanying teachers were: Maurice Cosandey, Gymnase de Chamblandes (VD), and Thomas Engeloch, Gymnasium Munchenstein (BL). As every year, the travel costs were kindly offered for the teachers by the Bundesamt fur Bildung und Wissenschaft, and for the students by the Swiss Academy of Sciences whose sponsorship is gratefully acknowledged.

It may be worth mentioning that a Swiss boy won a gold medal at this year's Olympiad: Hans Jakob Worner from Bremgarten (AG). But as he is studying in Freiburg in Breisgau, he was not allowed to compete with the Swiss team: he was a member of the German delegation.

In principle, 53 countries should have participated in this year's Olympiad, plus three observers: Croatia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. But on the very last minute, two delegations (Azerbaidjan and Kyrgyzstan) were held back at Moscow Airport due to overbooking problems, and, unfortunately, had not been able to rejoin later on. Thus, there were only 51 participating delegations, all with 4 students, except Cuba which had only one candidate.

The best result was achieved by Timothy Jones from the USA, the second best by Mario Tagliazucchi from Argentina. The best nations were Korea, Iran, and the USA, with three gold medals each, followed by China, Chinese Taipei, Hungary, and Romania, with two gold medals each. On the other end of the list, seven countries did not get any medals: Brazil, Czechia, Indonesia, Kuwait, Norway, Spain, and Uruguay.

Thailand has made a special effort to host this Olympiad. The laboratories and glassware (burettes, pipettes, beakers) were brand-new. Each student had a special microscale kit for organic operations with 22 items worth more than $100 (Fig.).

All participants were wonderfully welcomed and hosted like kings in luxury hotels. We were welcomed with enthusiasm by a charming young lady, H.R.H. Princess Chulabhorn of Thailand, who chaired the Opening and the Closing Cer emonies. Four banquets were organized in honour of the Chemistry Olympiad with magnificent decorations, not to mention the brilliant folk dances and other shows. And all the time, young Thai guides were available anywhere and at any time despite huge traffic problems in Bangkok and an exhausting outside temperature of about 35'. Thailand deserves its reputation as the Land of Smile.

Apart from the competition itself, the participants had the opportunity to visit Buddhist temples, golden palaces, and recreation parks in Bangkok and Ayutyat, the former capital. It was a glorious week, with only one shadow: nearly half of the participants fell ill probably due to some food problems. But they all recovered the following day.

The next Olympiads will take place in Copenhagen in July 2000, then in Prague 2001, Netherland 2002, and Greece 2003. The year 2004 has been reserved for Switzerland many years ago. But if no official invitation is written from Switzerland before June 2000, the Olympiad 2004 will be organized in Turkey. Taiwan has already announced that they will host it in 2005, and Korea in 2006. Lithuania and England may do it in 2007 and 2008. So it looks as if 2004 is a now-or-never event for Switzerland.

And if Switzerland refuses to host the Olympiad in 2004, the participation fee will soon become prohibitive. The amount can be obtained by multiplying $100 by the number of years elapsed since last hosting an Olympiad. As Switzerland has participated to all Olympiads since 1987 without hosting any, we would have to pay $1300 in 2000, $1700 in 2004, and so on.

(Taken from Chimia 53 (1999) 451-455)