1983 -

Anna Meares, a coalminer’s daughter from Blackwater, Queensland, made one of the great comebacks in Australian Olympic history when she won a silver medal in the women’s sprint cycling at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. History wasn’t new to her: in Athens four years before, she had become the first Australian female gold medallist in track cycling, winning the 500 metres time trial. Having also won bronze in the sprint cycling in Athens, she now possesses Olympic medals of every hue - making her the best performed Australian woman cyclist ever.

What made Meares’ silver medal in Beijing truly memorable was the knowledge that it came only seven months after she broke her neck in a race crash in Los Angeles. She arrived home after that in a neck-brace and a wheelchair. Her husband, former cyclist Mark Chadwick, became her full-time carer - cooking meals, brushing her hair, even helping her to brush her teeth. Her parents arrived to help, but her father Tony said he didn’t give her “a hope in Hades” of making it to Beijing. Her recovery began two weeks later, when she mounted her exercise bike and pedaled for two minutes. Her minutes on the bike expanded each day, and finally she was ready to unpack her racing bike. The miracle was on its way.

In the Beijing semi-final she clashed shoulders with local favourite Guo Shuang in the semis, but didn’t fall. The Chinese woman was disqualified, and Meares finally went down in the final to Britain’s Victoria Pendleton. Her silver was the Australian cycling team’s only medal in Beijing.

Harry Gordon, AOC Historian