Australia's greatest female cyclist Anna Meares a champion of Adelaide community

Anna Meares is the only Australian athlete in any sport to win medals at four consecutive Olympic games.

Anna Meares, Australia’s greatest female cyclist, has made her home town in Adelaide where the Australian Institute of Sport’s track cycling is based at the super drome. The Anna Meares bike path, opened next to Sir Donald Bradman Drive near Adelaide Airport in 2012, honours her involvement with the city’s community, including being worldwide ambassador for Port Adelaide Football Club.

A Queensland coal miner’s daughter, Meares is a four-time Olympian and twice Olympic champion (bronze in Rio 2016, gold and bronze in London 2012, silver -in Beijing 2008, and gold and bronze in Athens 2004). She was 11 times world champion across four disciplines, five times Commonwealth Games champion and flag bearer for the Glasgow 2014 Australian Commonwealth Games and the 2016 Rio Olympics where she was Australian team captain.

Her bronze in Rio de Janeiro made her Australia’s only athlete from any sport to win a medal at four consecutive Olympic Games. One of her most remarkable achievements was her silver medal in the sprint at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 – Australia's only cycling medal of the Games – just seven months after she broke her neck in a crash at a World Cup meet in Los Angeles.  In the 2012 Olympic Games, Meares won gold after an photo finish and with a great tactical display over her long-time arch rival Victoria Pendleton of Britain.

Meares has been a strong contributor to community causes, serving as an ambassador for Cycling Cares, linked to Neale Daniher and Ian Davis’s foundation Fight MND, after her coach of eight years, Gary West, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease after returning home from the Rio Olympics. Meares is also ambassador for the Little Heroes foundation for children  with serious illness.