<article_title>United_States_Academic_Decathlon</article_title>
<edit_user>NuclearWarfare</edit_user>
<edit_time>Saturday, April 11, 2009 11:45:57 PM CEST</edit_time>
<edit_comment>per awadewit</edit_comment>
<edit_text>1968–2000
The Academic Decathlon was formed in 1968 by Dr. Robert Peterson, the superintendent of schools in Orange County, California.&lt;ref&gt;&lt;/ref&gt; The inaugural competition was held in December 1968, and played host to 103 students.&lt;ref&gt;&lt;/ref&gt; Though at first only regional contests were held, as early as 1969 there was a push to make the competition state-wide;&lt;ref&gt;&lt;/ref&gt;<strong> in 1979,</strong> the first state-wide competition was held in 1979.&lt;ref name=&quot;tad&quot;&gt;&lt;/ref&gt; In 1981, the nationwide United States Academic Decathlon Association was formed, which held its first national competition in April 1982 at Loyola Marymount University in California—16 states and the District of Columbia participated.&lt;ref&gt;&lt;/ref&gt; However, Peterson, inspired by the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, sought to bring the competition to the international level.&lt;ref&gt;&lt;/ref&gt; At the 1984 Nationals, 32 states as well as Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and South Korea fielded teams.&lt;ref&gt;&lt;/ref&gt; The inclusion of foreign countries did not become not a regular occurrence, however. There was no more international participation until 1989, when teams from Northern Ireland and Rio de Janeiro competed.&lt;ref&gt;&lt;/ref&gt; Since then, a school from British Columbia, Canada, is the only foreign competitor to have competed at Nationals, having unsuccessfully done so in 2004.&lt;ref&gt;&lt;/ref&gt; It is unclear why international competition has been so minimal.</edit_text>
<turn_user>TechVars<turn_user>
<turn_time>Saturday, April 11, 2009 4:08:38 AM CEST</turn_time>
<turn_topicname>Small/Medium School E-Nationals</turn_topicname>
<turn_topictext>Well, I know USAD no longer has anything about this at usad.org, but for the first two years that they offered Small-School E-Nationals, the guidelines were fewer than 950 students, not &lt; 650. I guess to allow for a broader net? It wasn't until they added the Medium School category that the current school size guidelines were established. I'll look into digging up a source on that one, but if I can't find one, shall I just add it anyway? TechVars (talk) 04:08, 11 April 2009 (UTC) I think it would be best if you found a source for it first. I'll take a look into some of the archives we have used (just take a look at the citations) and hope that some of them mention that. navyNuclearWarfare (greenTalk) 15:01, 11 April 2009 (UTC)</turn_topictext>
<turn_text>Well, I know USAD no longer has anything about this at usad.org, but for the first two years that they offered Small-School E-Nationals, the guidelines were fewer than 950 students, not &lt; 650. I guess to allow for a broader net? It wasn't until they added the Medium School category that the current school size guidelines were established. I'll look into digging up a source on that one, but if I can't find one, shall I just add it anyway? </turn_text>