While much of the world’s attention over the past few weeks was focused on a single trophy, Serbia was welcoming home a stream of medals. Almost every day brought new headlines as Serbian high school students achieved remarkable results at international competitions around the globe.

One such success came in the United States. At the international OlympiadUSA competition, held in Houston from July 10 to 14, Serbian students won three gold medals and one bronze.

Jelisaveta Srdić (Mathematical Grammar School in Belgrade), Relja Dragojlović (Jovan Jovanović Zmaj Grammar School in Novi Sad), and Marko Denda (Zrenjanin Grammar School) won gold medals, while Vukašin Lužaić, also a student at Zrenjanin Grammar School, earned a bronze medal.

The four students actually traveled to Houston on their own. According to their parents, they managed exceptionally well.

They received logistical support and assistance throughout the competition from Ivana Milošević, a teacher at the Mathematical Grammar School.

Speaking to N1, Professor Milošević described the achievement as an outstanding success for Serbian students, noting that the competition attracts participants from all over the world.

“It is held in the traditional format, on paper. The students have very little time to solve a large number of problems—depending on the category, around 40 questions in an hour and a half,” she explained.

There was not much time to prepare because, as she pointed out, they could not have anticipated that the students would even qualify for the Olympiad.

That was confirmed by Jelisaveta Srdić, a second-year student at the Mathematical Grammar School.

“We had online qualification rounds, where you had to solve more than 90 percent of the problems correctly to earn a gold qualification, and there were several rounds. Even that was difficult, but the four of us managed to qualify. The competition in Houston was very strong. There were between 30 and 40 students from Mongolia alone, while there were only four of us. They had been preparing for this for a very long time,” she said.

In her category, for first- and second-year high school students, she had to solve 35 problems in 90 minutes.

“I was a little nervous because I had just over two minutes per problem. In the end, I got only one wrong,” she recalled.

Jelisaveta had previously competed at the 2024 Junior Balkan Mathematical Olympiad, where she won a bronze medal.

“I also took part in the Singapore Mathematics Olympiad, where I won a gold medal, and in the European Girls’ Olympiad in Informatics, where I received an honorable mention,” she said.

Competitions and victories are nothing new for her teammates either.

Earlier this March, Relja and Marko won bronze medals at the international STEMCO Physics Competition, while Vukašin claimed a gold medal at the STEMCO Mathematics Competition in June.

According to Vukašin, the competition in Houston was different because they had no way of predicting what the problems would look like.

“We only received sample problems from previous competitions the day before the contest,” he explained.

He spoke quickly because he was hurrying off to a football tournament.

He said the test also included problems from topics they will not cover until their fourth year of high school, but thanks to the strong mathematical foundation provided by their teacher in Zrenjanin, they managed to adapt and achieve this success.

Like the slightly younger Jelisaveta, he is not yet certain where he will pursue his university studies. The biggest plans are still taking shape.

Success of Serbia’s Young Talents

In just the past six weeks, Serbian students have won 11 medals at the International Research Competition in Mathematics, Biology, and Engineering Sciences, held in Izmir.

At the Junior Balkan Mathematical Olympiad, Serbia’s young talents returned home with three silver medals, two bronze medals, and one honorable mention.

The European Physics Olympiad (EuPhO 2026), held in Gothenburg, Sweden, brought students from Belgrade, Novi Sad, and Niš two gold medals, one silver, and two bronze medals.

Serbia’s national team also won one gold and one bronze medal at the International Cybersecurity Olympiad in Tunisia, while at the International Physics Olympiad in Colombia, Serbian students earned three silver and two bronze medals.

At the International Chemistry Olympiad in Uzbekistan, they returned with three medals, and just a few days ago, students from the Mathematical Grammar School in Belgrade won one gold, two silver, and three bronze medals at the 67th International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) in Shanghai.

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Source: N1; Foto: Privatna arhiva / Ustupljene Fotografije / N1