Anna Kiesenhofer: Mathematician, amateur cyclist, Olympic champion

Post by TomK32 » Sun, Jul 25, 2021, 7:06 PM UTC

lmilcin wrote: post #27

polote wrote: post #3

"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." Not saying she shouldn't had won, but when nobody is pursuing you, it is much easier to win. We have seen in the men race that even when people know there is one person in front, 80% of the riders prefer not to…

No, the rules are pretty simple. The one who manages to first cross the finish line wins. Everybody knows the rules. The problem is it is not a very simple sport and there is some game theory involved. Riding as fast as possible is not the best strategy, actually it is pretty poor one. The better strategy comes from understanding you don't need to win by a lot, winning by 1s is the same as winning by 10 minutes. Also…

Post by TomK32 » Sun, Jul 25, 2021, 7:13 PM UTC

Denvercoder9 wrote: post #8

polote wrote: post #3

"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." Not saying she shouldn't had won, but when nobody is pursuing you, it is much easier to win. We have seen in the men race that even when people know there is one person in front, 80% of the riders prefer not to…

The road race at the Olympics is somewhat of an outlier in cycling. It uses national teams as opposed to commerical teams, so riders ride with unfamilar teammates, and in this case the biggest favorites were actually teammates. It also bans radios, so there's no direct communication between the coaches and the riders possible.

Post by TomK32 » Sun, Jul 25, 2021, 7:20 PM UTC

sharken wrote: post #73

TomK32 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh communication is so important, isn't it? There's even an old Slim Gaillard song about that I used to lindy hop to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teaxWYRH9A4 What I've read, Kiesenhofer would have preferred to race the time trial instead of the the road race, she even told that the austrian press just before the race. A breakout gives you the advantage of riding your own pace at our optimal and constant power leve…

It would be a breath of fresh air for Tour de France if they did not use radios. Another outcome could be that we would not see the same rider winning multiple years, simply due to missing radios. All in all seems like a win for viewers.

Post by acdha » Sun, Jul 25, 2021, 7:24 PM UTC

jamincan wrote: post #67

acdha wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s also a healthy correction for the nerds-versus-jocks dichotomy which was so common for years. There are a non-trivial number of people who actively questioned someone’s technical competency if they were athletic or assumed that the only way to be a successful academic was to grind everything else out of their life.

My experience is that high-achievers in one area are often high-achievers in other areas as well. For academics as well as athletics, individual ability matters, but the discipline and work-ethic that most high-achievers have translates across fields.

Post by mncharity » Sun, Jul 25, 2021, 7:36 PM UTC

awb wrote: post #31

_Microft wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: why would this be interesting in this context? (Edit: check the follow-up comments to see why I wasn't as surprised as others about Ms. Kiesenhofer being both sportswomen and active academic and therefore did not make the connection with Mr. Turing immediately)

It’s super rare to be intellectually gifted and a world-class athlete. There was an NFL offensive lineman with a published mathematical paper as well, but I didn’t know about Turing’s physical talents until now. I don’t know of any other instances of brilliant people being paid or awarded medals for their physical abilities, so I personally found it interesting. I guess the parent comment was for those of us that wer…