Anna Meares
Anna Maree Meares OAM (born 21 September 1983) is an Australian track cyclist. She currently resides in Adelaide in South Australia where the Australian Institute of Sport's Track Cycling program has its headquarters at the Adelaide Super-Drome.
She has been the 500 metre track time trial world champion on four occasions, and a gold medalist at the Commonwealth and Olympic Games.
Contents
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.
2001
In 2001 Meares was awarded the Australian Junior Women's Track Cyclist of the Year.
2002
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.
2004
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.
2005
In 2005, Meares enrolled in a Bachelor of Learning Design course at Central Queensland University, but deferred her studies to concentrate on sport.[1][2]
2008
Meares made an astonishing come back from a very bad cycling accident at the World Cup in January 2008 when she broke her neck. Meares crashed in the third round of the World Cup circuit in Los Angeles in January 2008, seven months out from the Olympics. Meares fractured her C2 vertebra, dislocated her right shoulder, suffered torn ligaments and tendons, a heavily bruised right hip and skin abrasions as a result of skin sliding on wood when she crashed at 65 km/h. Astonishingly she was back on the bike just 10 days after the fall and went through intensive rehabilitation. With the points Meares had secured prior to the crash, she was able to fight her way back and qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.[3] [4]
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. This put Meares through to the final ride-off for gold against Victoria Pendleton, where she was beaten and received the silver medal.
2012
At the 2012 World Championships which took place in Meares' home country of Australia in Melbourne, Meares was favourite for three gold medals. In the team sprint Meares' 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. Meares completed her 4 laps in just 10.782 seconds shaving 11 thousands of a second off Simona Krupeckaite's mark.[6] In the semi final Meares 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 Meares 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] Meares set her second world record of the championships in her final event. Meares recorded 33.010 seconds to break the record by .286 of a second which was previously held by Simona Krupeckaite. With the time Meares won her second title of the championships and equaled Felicia Ballanger's record of ten world titles.[9]
At the 2012 London Olympics, Meares qualified for the final of the sprint, where she again faced Victoria Pendleton. In the first sprint of the final, Pendleton crossed the line first, but was relegated after illegally moving off her line as the cyclists sped through the final banking. Meares won the second sprint to win 2–0 and take the gold medal. She also won a bronze medal with Kaarle McCulloch in the team sprint.
2013
In 2013, Meares set a new world record of 32.836 seconds in the women's 500m time trial at the UCI Mexico Track World Cup, making her the first woman to go under 33 seconds in the event.[10]
Awards
Meares was Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) Athlete of the Year in 2007 and 2011[11] and 2011 inducted into the AIS 'Best of the Best'.[12]
The Anna Meares Bike Path adjacent to Sir Donald Bradman Drive near Adelaide Airport was named after Meares in 2012.[13]
Palmarès
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- 2001
- 1st 500m TT, World Track Championships – Juniors
- 2002
- 3rd Sprint, Commonwealth Games, Manchester
- 2003
- 2nd Keirin, World Track Championships, Stuttgart
- 2004
- 1st ‹The template FlagiconUCI is being considered for deletion.›
500m TT, World Track Championships, Melbourne - 2nd Sprint, World Track Championships, Melbourne
- 1st Sprint, Sydney
- 1st
500m TT, Olympic Games - 3rd
Sprint, Olympic Games
- 2005
- 1st 500m TT, Australian National Track Championships, Adelaide
- 1st Sprint, Australian National Track Championships, Adelaide
- 1st Keirin, Australian National Track Championships, Adelaide
- 1st Sprint, Sydney
- 1st Keirin, Sydney
- 2nd 500m TT, World Track Championships, Los Angeles
- 3rd Sprint, World Track Championships, Los Angeles
- 1st Sprint, Oceania Games, Wanganui
- 1st 500m TT, Oceania Games, Wanganui
- 2006
- 1st Sprint, Australian National Track Championships, Adelaide
- 2nd Keirin, Australian National Track Championships, Adelaide
- 1st Sprint, Sydney
- 1st 500m TT, Commonwealth Games, Melbourne
- 2nd Sprint, Commonwealth Games, Melbourne
- 2nd 500m TT, World Track Championships, Bordeaux
- 1st 500m TT, World Cup, Sydney
- 1st Team Sprint, World Cup, Sydney
- 2007
- 1st ‹The template FlagiconUCI is being considered for deletion.› 500m TT, World Track Championships, Palma de Mallorca – New World Record
- 3rd Team Sprint, World Track Championships, Palma de Mallorca
- 3rd Sprint, World Track Championships, Palma de Mallorca
- 3rd Keirin, World Track Championships, Palma de Mallorca
- 1st Sprint, World Cup, Los Angeles
- 2nd Team Sprint, World Cup, Los Angeles
- 1st 500m TT, Australian National Track Championships, Sydney
- 1st Team Sprint, Australian National Track Championships, Sydney
- 2nd Sprint, Australian National Track Championships, Sydney
- 1st Keirin, Australian National Track Championships, Sydney
- 3rd Sprint, World Cup, Manchester
- 3rd Team Sprint, World Cup, Manchester
- 1st Sprint, Oceania Cycling Championships, Invercargill
- 2nd Sprint, Sydney
- 1st 500m TT, Sydney
- 2008
- 2nd
Sprint, Olympic Games
- 2009
- 1st 500m TT, 2009–2010 UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics, Manchester
- 1st Team Sprint (with Kaarle McCulloch), 2009–2010 UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics, Manchester
- 3rd Keirin, 2009–2010 UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics, Manchester
- 1st 500m TT, 2009–2010 UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics, Melbourne
- 1st Keirin, 2009–2010 UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics, Melbourne
- 3rd Team Sprint, 2009–2010 UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics, Melbourne
- 2010
- 1st 500m TT, 2009–10 UCI Track Cycling World Ranking
- 1st Team sprint, 2009–10 UCI Track Cycling World Ranking
- 1st 500m TT, Commonwealth Games
- 1st Team Sprint, Commonwealth Games
- 1st Individual Sprint, Commonwealth Games
- 2011
- 1st 500m TT, 2010–11 UCI Track Cycling World Ranking
- 1st Keirin, 2010–11 UCI Track Cycling World Ranking
- 2012
- 1st ‹The template FlagiconUCI is being considered for deletion.› Keirin World Track Championships, Melbourne
- 1st ‹The template FlagiconUCI is being considered for deletion.› 500M TT World Track Championships, Melbourne (33.010sec world record)
- 3rd Sprint World Track Championships, Melbourne (Qualifying 10.782sec world record)
- 3rd Team Sprint, Olympic Games
- 1st Sprint, Olympic Games[14]
- 2014
- 2nd Time trial Track World Championships
- 1st 500M TT, Commonwealth Games
- 2nd Sprint, Commonwealth Games
- 2015
- 1st ‹The template FlagiconUCI is being considered for deletion.› Keirin, World Track Championships, Yvelines
Sponsorship
Anna Meares is currently sponsored by Uvex safety[15] and Toshiba[16]
See also
References
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- ↑ http://www.news-mail.com.au/news/world-record-again-anna-meares-cycling/2108732/
- ↑ AIS Athlete of the Year
- ↑ Australian Institute of Sport 'Best of the Best'
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External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Anna Meares. |
- Anna Meares profile – Australian Cycling Federation
- Road To Beijing Diaries: Anna Meares, Track Cycling
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Australian Athlete of the Year 2007 (with Nathan Deakes) 2011 |
Succeeded by Ken Wallace and Heath Francis Alicia Coutts and Tom Slingsby |
- Pages with broken file links
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- Use dmy dates from August 2012
- 1983 births
- Living people
- Australian Institute of Sport cyclists
- Australian female cyclists
- Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia
- Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Australia
- Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Australia
- Cyclists at the 2002 Commonwealth Games
- Cyclists at the 2004 Summer Olympics
- Cyclists at the 2006 Commonwealth Games
- Cyclists at the 2008 Summer Olympics
- Cyclists at the 2012 Summer Olympics
- People from Rockhampton
- Olympic bronze medalists for Australia
- Olympic cyclists of Australia
- Olympic gold medalists for Australia
- Olympic silver medalists for Australia
- Track cyclists
- UCI Track Cycling World Champions (women)
- Sportswomen from Queensland
- Cyclists at the 2010 Commonwealth Games
- Olympic medalists in cycling
- Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics
- Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics
- Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics
- Cyclists at the 2014 Commonwealth Games
- Commonwealth Games competitors for Australia
- Central Queensland University alumni
