Rising senior Timothy Deng won 12 medals, including five gold, at the sixth International History Olympiad held from July 20 to 26 at École Jeannine Manuel in Paris. The competition included 432 students representing 61 affiliations – 24 countries, three regions, and 34 U.S. states.

After entering the competition by taking the qualifying exam, Deng ultimately placed seventh overall in the varsity division with 10 individual medals. That performance earned him a berth on the California team with two other Bay Area students, Ashwin Vaidyanathan from Mission San Jose and Grant Han from BASIS Silicon Valley. The trio won a team gold in the Hexathlon event and a silver medal in the International History Bowl world championships. 

While Deng was the sole Harker representative from the upper school, Harker middle school students Vihaan Shrivastava (incoming co-captain for Harker’s middle school Quiz Bowl team) and Terence Heng also competed. Shrivastava won six medals overall, including three golds, and placed third overall in the middle school division. Heng garnered three medals in the intermediate division.

Additionally, Team California became the first-ever affiliation at an Olympiad to win more than 100 medals on the official medals table, garnering 40 golds and 129 overall medals.