Nobody paid much attention to Anna Kiesenhofer before the Tokyo Olympic road race - until now.

Not only did the young Austrian rider win the race, but she overcame more obstacles than anyone could imagine to do so.

And her story of career success is something that can inspire any lawyer looking to achieve their professional dreams.

One of the keys to her success was that she was not afraid to embrace those parts of her character that made her unique.

The Professional Amateur

An amateur, she had no team to fall back on. She had no coach. No team doctor. No nutritionalist. No motivational adviser.

She wrote with a mismatched groupset.

And she won gold.

The young Austrlian powered through the 147-kilometer course, battling blistering heat and grueling humidity to secure Austria's first cycling Olympic gold medal since 1896.

And she set heads twirling not only with her athletic success on the track, but her attitude towards success too.

No Slouch

She's no academic slouch, let alone a sporting one.

Holding a PhD in mathematics she has a pretty sound grip on what it takes to succeed.

She wasn't fussed about the team membership issue.

"It just didn't fit my character. I like to be independent. I like to make my choices like my training plan, my races and so on. I have just this lonely fighter approach."

Having earned a master's degree in mathematics from Cambridge and a PhD in applied mathematics from the Catalonia in Barcelona, Kiesenhofer meticulously plans her own training, nutrition and race strategy.

"I dare to be different. I have a different approach and this means that I'm also unpredictable, and that's exactly what happened yesterday," she says.

"People didn't predict, people didn't think that I might win."She says she hopes her story can inspire others to, "not to give up, to persevere [...] do what suits your character.""You just have to follow your instincts," she adds.