Anna Meares

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Anna Meares
Personal information
Full name Anna Meares
Born 21 September 1983 (1983-09-21) (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
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.

Contents

[edit] 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] .

[edit] Palmarés

2001
1st 500m TT, World Track Championships - Juniors
2002
3rd Sprint, Commonwealth Games, Manchester
2003
2nd Keirin, World Track Championships, Stuttgart
2004
1st Arc en ciel.svg 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
2nd Keirin, Los Angeles
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 Arc en ciel.svg 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, Commonwealth Games
1st Team Sprint, Commonwealth Games
1st Individual Sprint, Commonwealth Games

[edit] Sponsorship

Anna Meares is currently sponsored by Uvex safety [5] and Toshiba [6]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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