NMO Selection Tests for BMO and IMO

Let $S \subseteq \mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z}$ be a set whose pairwise sums of unordered pairs are distinct, and consider the pairwise differences of ordered pairs.
The crucial observation is that if a difference $d \neq 0$ occurs twice in $S$, then these two occurrences must be adjacent in a 3-term arithmetic progression in $S$ (with difference $d$). Indeed, if $a, a+d, a', a'+d$ are all in $S$, where $a \neq a'$, then $a+(a'+d) = a'+(a+d)$ so, by assumption on $S$, $a' = a \pm d$, i.e. the ordered pairs $(a, a+d)$ and $(a', a'+d)$ are adjacent in a 3-term arithmetic progression.
We also observe that, excepting the arithmetic progression of common difference $n/2$, in case $n$ is even, no two 3-term arithmetic progressions can have the same central term, since if $a, a \pm d, a \pm d'$ are all in $S$, where $d, d' \neq 0, n/2$ are distinct, then $(a+d') + (a-d') = (a+d) + (a-d)$ would violate the assumption on $S$.
It follows that the number of 3-term arithmetic progressions in $S$ is at most $|S|+2$. Now any non-zero difference not occurring in a 3-term arithmetic progression can appear at most once in $S$, and those which do appear in 3-term arithmetic progressions can appear at most twice, except $\pm n/3$ in case $n$ is divisible by 3, which can appear three times.
Consequently, the total number of non-zero differences appearing in $S$ is at least $|S|(|S|-1) - (|S|+2) - 2 = |S|^2 - 2|S| - 4$. If $|S| > 1 + \sqrt{n+4}$, this quantity is greater than $n-1$ — a contradiction.