The US Physics Team won all five gold medals at the 2025 International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) in Paris, France, with team members Agastya Goel, Allen Li, Joshua Wang, Feodor Yevtushenko, and Brian Zhang securing the historic sweep. Soon after their victory, the five young gold medallists were photographed with US President Donald Trump, who on Tuesday hosted the 2025 US Physics Olympiad team at the White House.
Trump’s aide Michael Kratsios shared an image of the President with the five-member team on X, writing: “Today POTUS & WHOSTP47 were proud to welcome the 2025 World Champion USA Physics Team to the White House! These incredible geniuses DOMINATED at the International Physics Olympiad in July, bringing home a record FIVE gold medals, the greatest performance in team history.”
The U.S. #Physics Team won all five #gold medals at the 2025 International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) in #Paris, #France, with #team members Agastya Goel, Allen Li, Joshua Wang, Feodor Yevtushenko, and Brian Zhang earning. pic.twitter.com/vGX3U2RFni
— Rajiv Mehta (@rajivmehta19) September 23, 2025
Who is Agastya Goel?
The Indian-origin teenager, son of Stanford professor Ashish Goel, is currently a junior at Henry M. Gunn High School in Palo Alto, California. Agastya was a gold medallist at the 2023 International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) and returned a year later to secure his second IOI gold, ranking fourth overall in one of the toughest programming contests for high school students. The 2024 edition, held in Egypt, saw him score 438.97 out of 600, while China’s Kangyang Zhou placed first with a perfect 600.
Agastya was one of 34 gold medallists worldwide, and his victory sparked comparisons with his father, Ashish Goel, who topped the IIT-JEE exam in 1990 before building a career in academia.
On his LinkedIn, Agastya describes himself as someone who loves playing tennis, hiking, stargazing, and is also into singing and music, with skills on both the guitar and piano. He listens to podcasts on news, economics, and science, and spends time playing frisbee and board games with friends. At school, he is active in the Gunn Board Game Club, the Gunn Competitive Programming Club, the varsity tennis team, and the Gunn Choir.
Agastya’s other recognitions include being a USACO Finalist in 2022, 2023, and 2024. He won silver at the USAPhO 2023 and an Honourable Mention in 2022 and attended the Mathematical Olympiad Program (MOP) in 2023. He also contributed to PRIMES-USA in 2023. The teen prodigy is also a multiple-time Honour Choir participant.
From June 2021 to February 2024, he worked as a part-time researcher at Euler Circle in Palo Alto, contributing to a mathematics paper later published in The Australasian Journal of Combinatorics. He also speaks Hindi and Spanish, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Early fascination with physics
Agastya’s journey in physics began during long car rides and hikes with his father. His first taste of competitive problem-solving came through USACO (USA Computing Olympiad), where he began preparing in sixth grade and qualified for training camp as a freshman.
While computer science first seemed like his natural path, it was during the winter break of 2023 that his love for physics took over. He spent two weeks absorbed in Kevin Zhou’s physics handouts, even studying in front of the Taj Mahal.
Agastya Goel’s family background
Agastya’s father, Ashish Goel, was born in Uttar Pradesh, studied computer science at IIT Kanpur, and later earned his PhD at Stanford. He is now a professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford. His research works include computer networks, computational social science, algorithmic game theory, and more. He also worked with Twitter in its early days, helping design its monetisation model.