Meet Anna Morris, world champion cyclist who was trainee doctor just three years ago
The doctor-turned-cyclist won individual pursuit gold at the UCI Track World Championships in Denmark earlier this month, barely three years after leaving her hospital job.
Cycling Track 
Three years ago, Anna Morris probably never thought she would become an elite world champion track cyclist.
Then 26, Morris was working as a trainee doctor at a hospital in Gloucestershire, England, watching the delayed Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 in 2021 and wondering if she still had what it took to become an elite athlete.
Morris had started cycling at university, and competed at the amateur British university level (UK university sport is not at the level of U.S. college sports), squeezing training and competitions in around her studies in medicine and her career.
But, after watching the Tokyo Olympics on television, Morris decided to try to go full-time – and it paid off when she was selected by Wales to compete at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
"Going full time made a huge difference," Morris said to BBC Sport Wales.
"At [2022 British] nationals I managed to medal in all three endurance events… it contributed to Commonwealth Games selection."
How 2022 Commonwealth Games propelled Anna Morris to top level
That experience in Birmingham was Morris's first major taste of international competition.
"Without the platform Welsh Cycling was able to provide me, I would have really struggled to have been able to gain any international racing experience and that level of coaching and support on my own. So it would have been really hard to have bridged that gap to the Great Britain cycling team."
However, she did just that, racing at the European Championships that same year and earning a contract with the national federation.
Since then, Morris has gone from strength to strength. She won team pursuit gold with Great Britain at last year's world championships and helped the team defend that title this year, adding an Olympic debut and bronze medal in Paris along the way.
But an individual pursuit world title earlier this month in Denmark, her first as a solo rider, was the culmination of a lot of hard work in a very short space of time – and a vindication of her decision to put her career in medicine on hold.
"The opportunities are still there, so I'm keen to keep exploring," she told the BBC.