Dr. Le Ba Khanh Trinh tells about his friend who won an Olympic Silver Medal and passed away due to a stroke.

Pham Ngoc Anh Cuong is handsome and has great knowledge.

Dr. Pham Ngoc Anh Cuong, who won the Silver Medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad - IMO 1979 and had a famous article published in Doklady Akademii Nauk - Russian Academy of Sciences, passed away due to a stroke at the age of 62.

46 years ago, Pham Ngoc Anh Cuong was one of the four people who won the Silver Medal at the 1979 IMO in London, England. In that competition, Le Ba Khanh Trinh won the Gold Medal with a perfect score of 40/40 and also won a special prize for the best solution. In addition, two other people also won the Silver Medal: Bui Ta Long and Pham Huu Tiep. All four people made up the legendary quartet of IMO 1979: Tiep - Trinh - Long - Cuong.

Sharing with VietNamNet reporter, Dr. Le Ba Khanh Trinh recalled that among the IMO contestants that year, Pham Ngoc Anh Cuong was the youngest in the group. "Cuong was like a child, but his knowledge was extremely profound," Dr. Le Ba Khanh Trinh said.

Dr. Le Ba Khanh Trinh. Photo: Le Na

Mr. Trinh said that at that time, the whole group practiced over and over again the types of exam questions, diligently solving the exercises given by the teacher, while Pham Ngoc Anh Cuong seemed very comfortable. "Cuong only looked at advanced problems in the university program, because his father was a university lecturer at that time. However, when he participated in the IMO, Cuong achieved very good results."

Dr. Le Ba Khanh Trinh shared that the day he went to Hanoi to prepare for the IMO team, he was the only one from the South, and Pham Ngoc Anh Cuong, a native of the area, told him that "Trinh looked very scholarly."

"I found Cuong handsome, a true Hanoian. At that time, we didn't talk much, but after joining the team, the whole group got along well, studying and playing together very happily," said Dr. Trinh.

In Dr. Trinh's memory, although handsome and a good student, Pham Ngoc Anh Cuong's health was not very good. He and Pham Ngoc Anh Cuong often cooked together. One evening, Cuong went out to buy bread and fainted. Hearing people talking, he ran out and saw that the person who had fainted was Pham Ngoc Anh Cuong. Although he was panicked, he and his friends took Cuong to the emergency room. A few days later, when his health was stable, Cuong returned to study again.

Gang "big brother"

After the IMO exam that year, Mr. Trinh and Mr. Cuong went to Russia to study and then did research, and the group of friends still kept in touch with each other.

Dr. Le Ba Khanh Trinh (black shirt) and Dr. Pham Ngoc Anh Cuong (middle front row) in the 1979 IMO team. Photo: Provided by Dr. Tran Nam Dung

According to Dr. Le Ba Khanh Trinh, during his student days, Pham Ngoc Anh Cuong was a funny and cheerful person, and was called "Big Brother Cuong".

“This nickname comes from two reasons. First, Pham Ngoc Anh Cuong at that time spoke very freely and was a bit wild. Second, Pham Ngoc Anh Cuong was a person with a rich and passionate love. “He liked many girls, but whenever he met a girl he liked, he would think a lot, even losing sleep. We called Cuong big brother for those two reasons,” said Mr. Trinh.

After completing his PhD in Russia, Dr. Trinh returned to Vietnam and went to the South to work at the University of Natural Sciences and the High School for the Gifted (Ho Chi Minh City National University). He spent many years as the head and deputy head of the Vietnamese team to compete in the IMO. Dr. Pham Ngoc Anh Cuong returned to Hanoi to work at the Institute of Mathematics for a while. Due to poor health, he later resigned. Every time he went to Hanoi, Dr. Trinh would meet Dr. Pham Ngoc Anh Cuong, and the two would go out for a beer and talk about life and work.

In the eyes of Dr. Le Ba Khanh Trinh, Dr. Pham Ngoc Anh Cuong is a gentle, honest, sincere, and even a bit childish person. Since they met, even though it has been more than 40 years, Dr. Pham Ngoc Anh Cuong still maintains this virtue.

Dr. Pham Ngoc Anh Cuong comes from a family of mathematicians, his father is Professor Pham Ngoc Thao - a famous teacher and mathematician. Dr. Pham Ngoc Anh Cuong's brother and sister are also majoring in Mathematics at Hanoi University of Science.

“However, what impressed me the most was Cuong’s mother. She was a polite, courteous and reasonable person. Once when I went to Hanoi, I gave Cuong some money to buy beer (he had quit his job at that time). Cuong’s mother found out and said: Don’t do that, Trinh, it’s bad for Cuong because drinking beer is not good for his health.”

According to Dr. Trinh, he and Dr. Pham Ngoc Anh Cuong are nostalgic people. They both like to use landline phones to call each other. When Dr. Cuong used Zalo, he also used it to talk to each other for convenience. Regrettably, they had only used Zalo and talked for a few days when he received news of Dr. Pham Ngoc Anh Cuong's passing.

“I know that everyone will leave this world, but deep down I didn’t think it would be so soon. The last time I saw Cuong, he wasn’t riding a motorbike anymore, but he looked quite healthy. I didn’t expect... Cuong to be gone now” - Dr. Trinh regretted.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/ts-le-ba-khanh-trinh-ke-ve-nguoi-doat-huy-chuong-bac-olympic-qua-doi-do-dot-quy-2381722.html