If you still do addition with the help of your fingers, you’re not alone. But you also wouldn’t have much in common with Zury Tlapanco Reyes.
The 8-year-old Mexican girl won a Grand Champion title at the 2019 ALOHA Mental Arithmetic Competition in Guangzhou, China in July 2019 by correctly solving 70 math problems in under 5 minutes. More impressive? She did all the calculations in her head.
Originally from Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico, Zury had won local and national competitions in the past, but this was her first international win.
The young girl competed alongside roughly 900 children from 35 other nations who are all trained in the ALOHA method of mathematics.
ALOHA, which stands for Abacus Learning of Higher Arithmetic, encourages children between the ages of 5 and 13 to get a leg up on mathematics by teaching skills such as focus and memory. The results are advanced computational prowess without the use of external devices such as calculators.
According to Upworthy, Zury and her parents spoke to the press after her win. The child prodigy was clear about her love of mathematics and downplayed the sacrifices made to compete at this level because she was doing what she enjoyed.
Meanwhile, her parents were both proud and humbled by the efforts of Zury and the supporters who helped her get to the competition on the other side of the world.
When the elementary school student returned to Mexico on July 24, she was greeted at the Tampico International Airport by friends and family who chanted her name and cheered as she smiled and held her trophy.
There are multiple “Grand Champions” named in the ALOHA competitions. These trophies go to any child who can complete the 70-problem set correctly in under 5 minutes.
A total of 79 children from Mexico participated in the competition and 13 of them took home a “Grand Champion” title.
But that should not diminish the accomplishment of this talented 6th-grade girl.
Prior to her trip to China, Zury and a fellow National Champion-level AHOLA mathematician – who also competed in the international competition – got to meet Presidente Municipal Alma Laura Amparán Cruz, who congratulated the girls on their accomplishments.
According to some reports, Zury managed to solve all 70 problems in just 2 minutes, although the translations from Chinese and Mexican news outlets have resulted in many different interpretations of the victory and its circumstances.
Regardless, we’re pretty darn impressed with Zury’s skills (and the skills of all the national champions that made their way to China for the “Olympics of Math”).
The first ALOHA school opened in Ipoh, Malaysia in 1993. These schools are now spread out all over the world, not only empowering students to do mathematics, but to train their brains to solve all kinds of analytical problems with ease, speed, and precision.
We’ll be thinking of her next time we add a tip to our next restaurant bill with the help of our fingers.
Be sure to scroll down below to see the hero’s welcome Zury received upon returning home from China in July.
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