Anna Meares started competitive cycling at the age of 11 in 1994, following her older sister
Kerrie Meares into the sport.
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. 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. In qualification for the individual sprint Meares broke the world record for the flying start 200 metres. Meares completed her four laps in just 10.782 seconds shaving 11 thousands of a second off
Simona Krupeckaitė's mark. 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. 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. 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 Krupeckaitė. With the time Meares won her second title of the championships and equaled
Felicia Ballanger's record of ten world titles. In preparation for the Olympics, Meares and her coach, West, tailored a 'Project Know Thy Enemy' program. The 'Project' involved Meares racing against male sprinter: Alex Bird; who would mimic Pendleton: former "friend" turned "enemy". The objective was to run multiple racing scenarios and find the best tactic to beat "Queen Vic". 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 controversially relegated after illegally moving off her line as the cyclists sped through the final banking, which many believe was as a result of Meares aggressive riding. Meares won the second sprint to win 2–0 and take the gold medal. When asked about her tactics, perceived as being unsporting, she responded: "this is sport [...] We're not out there to have a cup of tea".
2013 Meares took rest after the 2012 Olympics and skipped the 2013 World Championship. She returned to competitions in July 2013.
2015–16 In late February 2015, Meares competed at the world championships and won three medals. She also separated from her husband of nine years, Mark Chadwick, early in 2015. At the 2016 Rio Olympics Meares took part in three events. She won a bronze medal in the
keirin, placing tenth in the
individual sprint and fourth in the
team sprint. ==Commentating==