Anna Meares

Anna Meares (born September 21, 1983, Blackwater, Queensland, Australia) is a former Australian cyclist who competed in sprint track races in the early 21st century. She won medals at four consecutive Olympic Games (2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016), becoming the first Australian athlete to accomplish that feat. By the end of her career in 2016 Meares had earned 6 Olympic medals, including 2 golds, and 11 UCI (Union Cycliste International [International Cycling Union]) Track Cycling World Championships.

Early life

The youngest of four children born to Anthony and Marilyn Meares, Anna Meares spent her early years in Middlemount, Queensland, Australia. As a child Meares participated in several sports, including karate and swimming. When she was 11 years old, she and her elder sister, Kerrie, watched the 1994 Commonwealth Games that took place in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, on television. They saw Australian racing cyclist Kathy Watt compete and wanted to try the sport. Their father found them a racing club to join, but it was some 185 miles (300 km) away. After two years of driving them there to practice and compete every weekend, the family decided to move to Rockhampton, Queensland, which had an indoor bicycle racing track. There the two girls sharpened their racing skills.

Career

Meares began competing at the junior level in 2000. She made her senior international debut at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England. She won a bronze medal in the sprint event, and her sister won two gold medals. At the 2004 World Championships in Melbourne, Meares won the 500-meter time trial. Kerrie Meares had to miss the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens because of injury. However, Anna Meares won a gold medal in the 500-meter time trial. Her time of 33.952 sec set a world record and was the first time a woman recorded a time under 34 sec in that event. Meares also won a bronze medal in the women’s sprint event.

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In the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Meares won a gold medal in the 500-meter time trial and a silver medal in the sprint. The next year at the World Championships in Majorca, Spain, she broke her own world record at the 500-meter time trial, clocking 33.588 sec.

At the beginning of 2008 Meares competed in the UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Los Angeles. During a race, traveling at a speed of about 40 mph (65 km/hr), she crashed her bike and fell onto the wooden track. She broke a vertebra in her neck, dislocated her shoulder, and tore ligaments and tendons. Those severe injuries jeopardized her participation in the upcoming 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. However, Meares was able to begin training soon after the crash and after a few months was able to compete in the Olympics. She won a silver medal in the sprint event. (The 500-meter time trial was discontinued after the 2004 Olympic Games.)

Meares continued her cycling success at other major tournaments. At the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, she won gold medals in the sprint, team sprint, and 500-meter time trial. At the 2011 World Championships in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, she finished first in the sprint, team sprint, and keirin. (The keirin consists of 8 laps, the first 5.5 of which are ridden behind a motorized bicycle that brings the competitors up to speed—about 28 mph, or 45 km/hr. In the final 2.5 laps the motorized bicycle is removed, and the competitors sprint to the finish.) With those wins Meares became the first woman in cycling to win a world championship in every discipline in which she competed. At the 2012 World Championships in Melbourne she won gold medals in the 500-meter time trial and the keirin, a silver medal in the team sprint, and a bronze medal in the individual sprint.

Meares subsequently set her sights on the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. She won a gold medal in the sprint and a bronze medal in the team sprint. In 2013 at the World Cup in Aguascalientes, Mexico, Meares broke her own world record in the 500-meter time trial with a time of 32.836 sec. She became the first woman to race under 33 sec in the event. Her success continued, and in 2014 she won two silver medals at the World Championships in Cali, Colombia. That same year Meares competed in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland. She won a gold medal in the 500-meter time trial and a silver medal in the sprint. At the 2015 World Championships in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France, Meares won a silver medal in the 500-meter time trial and a silver medal in the team sprint. She also earned a gold medal in the keirin. That gave her a record 11th world championship gold medal.

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Meares attended her last World Championships in 2016 at London. There she won a silver medal in the keirin. At the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Meares was the flag bearer of the Australian team; she was only the second cyclist Australia had ever chosen for that honor. At the Games Meares won a bronze medal in the keirin. She also competed in the sprint and team sprint events but did not medal in those competitions. Later that year Meares announced her retirement.

The Australian government and sports organizations have honored Meares with several awards. Among them are a Medal of the Order of Australia, received in 2005 in recognition of her 2004 Olympic gold medal. In 2021 she was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame. Meares has written two memoirs, The Anna Meares Story (2009) and, with Reece Homfray and Steve Waugh, Now: Sometimes the End of the Race Is Only the Beginning (2020). Meares served as the general manager for Australia’s team at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England. Later that year Meares was appointed the chef de mission for the Australian team at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.