Anna Meares

, 2018

Anna Meares OAM (b. 1983) is both the youngest Australian track cyclist and first Australian female track cyclist to win an Olympic gold medal. Inspired by her family’s passion for competitive cycling, Meares began competing at age eleven. Within a decade, she won her maiden world title at the world championships in Melbourne. She claimed her first Olympic gold in Athens in 2004, becoming the first woman in the world to break the 34-second barrier. In 2008, just seven months after she broke her neck and dislocated her shoulder at a World Cup meet in Los Angeles, she took silver in the sprint at the Beijing Olympics. The first Australian athlete to win four medals in four consecutive Olympic Games, Meares collected 18 gold, 16 silver and 10 bronze medals at Olympic, World and Commonwealth Games levels. Among her many accolades, she was named Australian Cyclist of the Year in 2008 and 2012 and Australian Institute of Sport Athlete of the Year in 2007 and 2011; she was flag-bearer for the Australian team at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014. Now a popular motivational speaker, she has served as an ambassador for various charities, events and teams including the Little Heroes Foundation and Cycling Cares.