Who is Anna Kiesenhofer?

Gold medallist’s stealthy approach to Olympic success

- Simon Richardson

Thirty-year-old Anna Kiesenhofer is not your typical Olympic champion. Technically she’s not even currently a pro athlete as she works as a lecturer at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland alongside her training.

She started cycling when her running was curtailed by injuries. In 2012 while studying maths at Cambridge University she was a team-mate of Hayley Simmonds, riding the British Universities and Colleges Sports (BUCS) 10-mile championships and finishing last.

Self-coached, her improvement over the next few years was rapid. In 2016 she finished second overall in the seven-stage Tour Cycliste Féminin Internationale de l’Ardèche, winning the stage to the top of Mont Ventoux by almost four minutes. In the results she is listed without a team name. In the same year she completed her PhD at the University of Catalonia.