Anna Kiesenhofer: Mathematician, amateur cyclist, Olympic champion

As an amateur rider, Anna Kiesenhofer's Olympics victory might have been a surprise, but she was not a rider to be underestimated. On the third stage of the 2016 edition, which featured a summit finish on Mont Ventoux, Kiesenhofer bridged to a breakaway group which, amongst others, contained the Polish rider Anna Plichta, who would later become her breakaway companion in Tokyo. Kiesenhofer eventually took second overall in the race. In 2019, Kiesenhofer came back to the sport as an amateur rider, winning the Austrian national road race and time trial championships and placing 20th in the World Championship time trial. Despite her results, Kiesenhofer was still without a professional contract going into the Olympics. Kiesenhofer was the very first rider to attack in the Olympic road race, eventually forming a breakaway alongsize Carl Oberholzer, Omer Shapira, Vera Looser, and Anna Plichta which went on to reach a gap of 11 minutes. After Looser and Oberholzer were dropped, Kiesenhofer attacked her two remaining breakaway companions and time-trialled her way to the finish for over 40km. After Shapira and Plichta were caught by the remainder of the peloton the rest of the riders seemed to believe that they were racing amongst themselves for Gold, unaware that Kiesenhofer was still in front.