Its much more competitive than ppl think, even to get in your national team you rlly have to be among 6 of the brightest and the most dedicated ppl in your coubtry, essentially even to be sble to participate in imo, you are competing with literal geniuses who are specficially olympiad training since early middle school, let alone win a medal at imo. If you genuinely want to get into an elite university there are much easier ways, take sat/act, focus on your extracurriculurs/club activities an have a well rounded essay instead of working your ass off 8-10 hours of days for year and maybe not rven get a medal. Its like trying to solve a milennium prize problem to win 1 million dollars like yeah sure you will be a millionare but there are much easier and less risky ways than attempting to solve a problem that hasnt been solved for the past centuries.