Vietnamese Mathematical "Legend" and the Journey to Conquer the Math Olympiad

(Dan Tri) - From the time he was a student until his retirement, Dr. Le Ba Khanh Trinh's name was associated with the International Mathematical Olympiad. For him, it was not just an achievement but a journey to understand himself.

In 1979, at the age of 17, while a student in the specialized math class at Quoc Hoc Hue School, Le Ba Khanh Trinh won first prize at the International Math Olympiad in London (UK) with a perfect score of 40/40, and also won a special prize for students for their unique solution.

After graduating from the Mathematics Department of Moscow State University (Russia), he returned to Vietnam to teach at the Mathematics and Information Technology Department of the University of Natural Sciences and the Gifted High School (Ho Chi Minh City National University).

The International Mathematical Olympiad continued to benefit him when he became the mentor of many generations of Vietnamese students participating in this arena with many remarkable achievements.

Dr. Le Ba Khanh Trinh shared with Dan Tri reporter (Photo: Hoai Nam).

At the Gifted High School alone, Dr. Le Ba Khanh Trinh led the school's math team to win 171 national excellent student awards, 19 international Olympic medals including 5 gold medals, 9 silver medals, 3 bronze medals and 2 honorary certificates. Not to mention, he participated in training many teams from other provinces and cities as well as directly led the Vietnamese math team in international competitions.

Dan Tri reporter had a chat with the person known as "Vietnam's math legend" after he received his retirement decision, after nearly 40 years of working as a teacher and almost his entire life with math.

Win the special prize and the wrong problem

Going back more than 45 years ago, in 1979, when student Le Ba Khanh Trinh participated in the International Math Olympiad in London, what do you remember most?

- I remember a lot of things! That year, the other 4 students who participated in the International Math Olympiad were all students in Hanoi , only I was a student from another province. Compared to my friends, my ability at that time was much weaker.

When I was young, I was competitive. When I returned to Hanoi to study, I studied a lot and devoted all my energy to studying and reviewing. This time helped me somewhat shorten the gap with my friends.

At that time, there was a border war, students and we were always in the spirit of joining the army at any time.

At that time, Vietnam was under embargo so the Vietnamese delegation could not go straight to England to attend the International Mathematical Olympiad but had to fly to the Soviet Union, wait there to know the results whether they could go to England to attend or not.

Student Le Ba Khanh Trinh received first prize and special prize at the 1979 International Mathematical Olympiad in London (Photo: NVCC).

What about the perfect score of 40/40 and also winning a special prize for students with unique solutions in the International Math Olympiad that year?

- That year, I did a question wrong on the test. On the first day of the test, when there were 15 minutes left, I checked my answer and found that I did the opposite of the question.

The exam paper had two points moving in the same direction, but I made a mistake and solved it as two points moving in opposite directions. I quickly did the supplementary exercise as required by the exam paper, but by this time the other students had already submitted their work and left.

While doing the test, I asked the supervisor: "Let me write a few more lines". The supervisor was still waiting for me. I finished submitting my test by thanking him.

I still kept the wrong reverse problem in the test, did not cross it out. Actually, the problem was wrong but the test was not wrong, my test had added the reverse situation next to the same direction. Maybe this was a lucky thing for me.

The 1979 International Mathematical Olympiad "awakened" in me exactly 40 years later in a very special meeting.

In 2019, I led the Vietnamese team to compete in the International Mathematical Olympiad in the UK. During the exchange, when mentioning the Vietnamese team, a veteran judge of the International Mathematical Olympiad reminded: “Oh, Vietnam? There was a Vietnamese boy of yours who won the absolute gold prize and the special prize in 1979, I will always remember his work.”

Hearing that, the teachers in the group immediately pointed to me - the "Vietnamese boy" that year that the examiner had just mentioned.

A strange encounter, I met the same person who graded my Olympic exam 40 years ago.

He said that year, when he was grading a Vietnamese student’s test, the test was very short, and the examiners said to each other, “It probably won’t work.” Then one of the examiners shouted, “Oh, he did it right!” From then on, the teacher was impressed with the word “Vietnam” every time he participated in grading the International Math Olympiad.

Waking up after being "checkmated" by students

After graduating in Russia, you returned to Vietnam and stuck with teaching instead of reaching out to many opportunities abroad. Do you feel like you “narrowed” yourself when you chose to return home and stick with teaching?

For me, returning to Vietnam to live and work is a natural thing, without any hesitation or worry when my homeland is there, my relatives are there. I have never thought of working abroad, so maybe that is why those opportunities have not come to me.

Moving from Hue to Ho Chi Minh City to live and work was a new horizon for me. The country was in an open period with many interesting and new things for me to explore.

Mr. Trinh with colleagues and students at the International Math Olympiad (Photo: NVCC).

I like to be a teacher, perhaps influenced by many teachers during my studies in Russia. Teachers are not gentle, slow, quiet, silent images... I see images of strong, thorny teachers, with very individual and unique teaching styles.

The best thing about being a teacher is that my students have taught me and opened my eyes to many things. I question myself and am strict with myself when I look at my own students.

How has teaching and students helped Dr. Le Ba Khanh Trinh grow up?

- Looking back at my first years of teaching, I see that I was very irresponsible, if not irresponsible. At that time, I often gave problems from international math books and let students solve them themselves, while I was at ease because the answers were already in the books.

Students came up with better and more interesting solutions, and many times they “checkmated” me. The solutions available in the book I gave lacked soul, passion, and my own uniqueness, as well as lacked the connection with my students.

I remember my strong-willed teachers in Russia. I realized that if this continued, the teachers would “fail” and the students would not progress. I could not help the students develop but only hold them back.

After being “checkmated” by my students, I woke up. I joined them, studied with them, solved problems with them, put my soul and essence into each problem. It was my students who lifted me up, helped me change, and saved me.

For him, his students are the ones who awakened him and helped him grow up (Photo: NVCC.

Your journey of accompanying Vietnamese students to compete in the International Math Olympiad is certainly not just about how many gold medals and silver medals people see?

In 2005, I started my apprenticeship leading students to the International Mathematical Olympiad. Exams often leave me with regrets and “if onlys”…

In 2013, for the first time, I was the leader of a delegation of Vietnamese students to compete in the International Math Olympiad. The students in the delegation were very united and did very well on the test, but in fact, at that time, I and the other leaders were all new and had little experience. This unfortunately led to a student in the delegation being deducted points for the geometry test, which meant that he was one point short of the gold medal.

I feel sorry for the group, but what I feel most sorry for is the student. I keep thinking, if only I had done better…

There is a regret on the sidelines besides the exam story, which is about the British teacher who graded my exam in 1979, whom I accidentally met again after 40 years, mentioned above.

Teacher Le Ba Khanh Trinh in his rare free time plays the guitar with friends (Photo: NVCC).

In 2024, the International Mathematical Olympiad was moved to England instead of Ukraine due to the war. When I took the delegation there, I prepared a small gift for the teacher, but it was too late… He just passed away.

Perhaps fate only allowed me to meet my special exam grader once - a teacher who spent his whole life accompanying the Math Olympiad.

Setting an example for your children in… "hopelessness"

In retirement, is a day of "math boy" Le Ba Khanh Trinh leisurely and leisurely with his hobby of playing guitar since his student days?

No, I am still busy after retirement, even busier because I have to take care of the grocery shopping for my wife. My wife works in a bank, the job is very stressful, before I could not share it, but now I am retired, she is also old, if I do not do it, my wife will be stressed, have headaches, dizziness...

After retirement, in addition to continuing to train the national team, Dr. Le Ba Khanh Trinh took on the additional task of shopping for his wife (Photo: Hoai Nam).

I still participate in training the excellent student team. In teaching, especially with excellent students, the requirements are getting higher and higher. What I have, what I know before and now is not enough to teach students, but must change to become better and better, which means it is also more difficult and heavier.

I think “the older the ginger, the spicier it is”. A day that I don’t learn something, a day that my brain doesn’t receive something to improve my awareness and knowledge is a wasted day.

There are problems that I solve today like that, but after a while, maybe many years later, I have to say that it is not like that. Except for what is simple and true, nothing is true. What I know is only what I know at the present time.

Before, I had a principle of not teaching any individual or any team. Teaching privately always made me feel strange. But now I think differently, maybe I will teach a team like Hue for example, it is love, it is gratitude.

But I also felt more relaxed when I was no longer tied to a fixed work schedule. My wife had just given me a guitar, and I could sit and play it. I remember the time I was leisurely playing the guitar when I went to my girlfriend’s house (my future wife) when I was 26. After that, I didn’t have time to play, so I gave the guitar to a nephew.

Shopping for your wife, teaching your children and managing money, solving these tasks versus solving math problems, which is more difficult, sir?

- Equally difficult (laughs). I find that math not only helps me organize everything in my life scientifically, but also helps me go to the supermarket for my wife.

When I go to the supermarket, I will not choose to buy products that are priced appropriately, not too expensive compared to the features; I wait for promotional and discounted products to buy in reserve, so that when needed, I can have them immediately.

But I find myself setting an example for my children in "hopelessness". None of my children follow my career, which I find normal. They have their own passions and choices.

I was born and raised when the country was in difficulty. I lived very frugally and economically. When an apple is rotten, I peel off the rotten part and use it, but my wife and children throw it away immediately.

Because of this, husbands and wives, fathers and children often quarrel. Like recently, after frying fish, I kept the oil for later use, but my children threw it away. I hung up new clothes to wear again the next time, but my children put their new clothes in the washing machine right after they got home… Of course, I also see some lovely things in the way my wife and children live.

In my eyes, my wife and children are too wasteful and extravagant, and conversely, my children say I live too frugally, too miserably, sometimes saying “you are selfish”. I don’t think I can give or change my children’s way of life, I can only instill in them little by little values ​​such as self-respect, honesty, integrity, diligence…

"Golden boy of mathematics" with his wife and children (Photo: NVCC).

Money management is a very broad and complicated issue, requiring a lot of knowledge that I cannot touch. I do not have the time and energy for this, I cannot do it, so I listen to my wife's arrangement for any money I have.

Now that I am retired, I still teach, lead the team, and attend professional meetings and she immediately asks, “Are you still having fun?”. There may be right and wrong in math, but in life, sometimes listening to your wife is the way to keep your family happy.

- Thank you very much for sharing and wish you good health!

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/huyen-thoai-toan-hoc-viet-nam-va-hanh-trinh-chinh-phuc-olympic-toan-20250826164430094.htm