Anna Kiesenhofer, a 30-year-old with a Ph.D. in mathematics has won the gold medal for cycling in Austria.
Kiesenhofer achieved this win without any endorsement support, or a coach, but used her mathematician skills to “solve problems on your own” with cycling.
“Many cyclists….have a trainer, they have a nutritionist, the have the guy that plans the race for them. I just do all these jobs myself,” she told CNN.
The Austrian Olympian pedaled for 91 miles (147 km), to cross the finish line, and after her achievement, the gold medalist took to Instagram to express her gratitude and wrote, “Thanks from the bottom of my heart to those who have been there for me over the last months and years. You know who you are. And you know that the very essence of this achievement is not so different from any other major goal I set myself in the past.”
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This stunned the world as the cyclist wasn’t considered a threat in Sunday’s Olympic women’s road race. In fact, The Wall Street Journal reports that her name didn’t appear on any list of pre-race contenders.
In addition to Kiesenhofer’s previous accomplishments such as her degree from the Technical University of Vienna, her educational background from Cambridge, as well as her doctorate from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, she can now add gold Olympian to her list too.
Watch Kiesenhofer’s interview with CNN on the cycling gold medal.
