Anna Meares

Anna Meares

Personal information
Full name	Anna Meares
Born	(1983-09-21) 21 September 1983 (age 28) Blackwater, Australia
Height	1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)
Weight	62.5 kg (138 lb)
Team information
Discipline	Track
Role	Rider
Rider type	Sprinter
Medal record Competitor for  Australia Track cycling Olympic Games Gold 2004 Athens 500 m time trial Silver 2008 Beijing Women's sprint Bronze 2004 Athens Women's sprint Commonwealth Games Gold 2006 Melbourne 500 m Time Trial Gold 2010 Delhi 500 m Time Trial Gold 2010 Delhi Sprint Gold 2010 Delhi Team Sprint Silver 2006 Melbourne Sprint Bronze 2002 Manchester Sprint World Championships Gold 2004 Melbourne 500 m Time Trial Gold 2007 Palma de Mallorca 500 m Time Trial Gold 2009 Pruszków Team Sprint Gold 2010 Ballerup 500 m Time Trial Gold 2010 Ballerup Team Sprint Gold 2011 Apeldoorn Team Sprint Gold 2011 Apeldoorn Sprint Gold 2011 Apeldoorn Keirin Gold 2012 Melbourne Keirin Gold 2012 Melbourne Time Trial Silver 2002 Copenhagen Sprint Silver 2003 Stuttgart Keirin Silver 2004 Melbourne Sprint Silver 2005 Los Angeles 500 m Time Trial Silver 2009 Pruszków 500 m Time Trial Silver 2012 Melbourne Team sprint Bronze 2002 Copenhagen 500 m Time Trial Bronze 2005 Los Angeles Sprint Bronze 2007 Palma de Mallorca Sprint Bronze 2007 Palma de Mallorca Team Sprint Bronze 2007 Palma de Mallorca Keirin Bronze 2012 Melbourne Sprint
Infobox last updated on 27 March 2011

Anna Maree Meares, OAM (born 21 September 1983 in Blackwater Queensland) is an Australian track cyclist.

She has been the 500m TT world champion twice, and a gold medalist at the Commonwealth and Olympic Games.

Biography

Anna Meares started competitive cycling at the age of 11 in 1994, following her older sister Kerrie Meares into the sport. The family were inspired to take up competitive cycling by Kathy Watt winning a cycling gold medal at the 1994 Commonwealth Games. With the family living in the small Queensland coal-mining town of Middlemount, it was more than two hours drive to the nearest cycling track at Mackay for the girls to train.

During the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, she won a gold medal, and set a new world record in the Women's 500 metre time trial of 33.952 seconds. Meares had to beat a new Olympic record set just minutes previously by the reigning World Record holder, Yonghua Jiang of China. (See Cycling at the 2004 Summer Olympics). The event was abolished from the Olympic program so Meares could not defend her title in 2008.

Meares also won a bronze medal in the Women's 200m Sprint event in Athens.

In May 2004 at the Time Trial World Titles in Melbourne Meares claimed the title of Women's World time trial champion, and won a silver for the sprint event. Also claimed first in the 2004 World Cup Time Trial in Sydney.

In 2002 Meares narrowly missed a bronze medal in the inaugural inclusion of the 500 metre time trial at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, while her older sister, Kerrie Meares won the gold medal in the event. She won a bronze medal in the sprint.

In 2001 Meares was awarded the Australian Junior Women's Track Cyclist of the Year.

Meares made an astonishing come back from a very bad cycling accident at the World Cup in January 2008 when she broke her neck. But she fought her way back and qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.^{[1] [2]}

Meares had an eventful semi-final in the sprint at the 2008 Summer Olympics, having lost the first heat to her opponent Guo Shuang, she won the second heat. The third heat saw Guo come down the banking too steeply and her front wheel slipped from beneath her. The heat was re-run and although Guo won by a few millimetres, she was relegated for coming down the track and pushing Meares onto the côte d'azure on the final lap, Meares was lucky to keep her bicycle upright. This put her through to the final ride-off for gold against Victoria Pendleton, Meares was beaten and received the silver medal.

Meares was Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) Athlete of the Year in 2007 and 2011 ^[3] and 2011 inducted into the AIS 'Best of the Best' ^[4] .

At the 2012 World Championships which took place in Mears' home country of Australia in Melbourne, Mears was favourite for three gold medals. In the team sprint Mears' won silver as Germany set two world records in the event.^[5] In qualification for the individual sprint Meares broke the World Record for the flying 200 metres. Mears completed her lap in just 10.782 seconds shaving 11 thousands of a second off Simona Krupeckaite's mark.^[6] In the semi final Mears faced her old rival Pendleton. Pendleton clashed with the Australian in their first heat and ended up on the floor before Meares was relegated from the second for going outside of her lane. In the decider Pendleton won in a photo finish, with Mears settling for bronze after defeating Lyubov Shulika.^[7]. In the keirin, Meares won both her qualifying races before reaching the final, where she held off Russian Ekaterina Gnidenko and German Kristina Vogel to win the first of two world championships in Melbourne.^[8] Mears set her second world record of the championships in her final event. Mears recorded 33.010 seconds to break the record by .286 of a second which was previously held by Simona Krupeckaite. With the time Mears won her second title of the championships and equaled Felicia Ballanger's record of ten world titles.^[9]

Palmarés

Sponsorship

Anna Meares is currently sponsored by Uvex safety ^[10] and Toshiba ^[11]

See also

	Queensland portal
	Sports portal

• Sprint (cycling)
• Cycling at the 2004 Summer Olympics
• Toshiba

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Anna Meares

• Mearessisters.com Official website
• AnnaMeares.net - Anna Meares Fan Site
• Anna Meares profile - Australian Cycling Federation
• Road To Beijing Diaries: Anna Meares, Track Cycling