Anna Meares to announce her retirement despite the lure of home town Commonwealth Games

CHAMPION Australian cyclist Anna Meares is expected to resist the lure of a Commonwealth Games swanswong in her home state and instead announce her immediate retirement.

Bronze medallist Australia's Anna Meares poses on the podium after the women's Keirin finals track cycling event at the Velodrome during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro on August 13, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / Odd Andersen

CHAMPION Australian cyclist Anna Meares is expected to retire from the sport immediately and resist the lure of a Commonwealth Games swanswong in her home state of Queensland in 2018.

The greatest female track cyclist in history has remained coy on her future since a tearful farewell to the crowd at the Rio Olympics in August, but an announcement drawing the curtain on her glittering career is believed to be imminent.

Meares, 33, would bow out of the sport with a staggering six Olympic medals (two gold, one silver and three bronze), 11 world championship gold medals, five Commonwealth gold medals and 35 national titles.

An announcement is expected as early as today (Saturday).

Australia's Anna Meares wins Bronze in the final of the Women's Keirin at the Rio Olympics

As the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games organisers prepare to open the Anna Meares Velodrome at Chandler, south of Brisbane next month, Australian cycling insiders do not expect her to continue racing on the track named in her honour.

The situation facing Meares post-Rio is almost identical to the one which faced British track cycling legend Sir Chris Hoy after London in 2012. Not even the lure of racing on the ‘Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome’ in Glasgow at the 2014 Commonwealth Games could convince him to shelve retirement plans and he bowed out at the top of his game.

Meares was hampered by a back injury in the lead up to Rio which was her fourth and final Olympics after getting the absolute best from her body — particularly after breaking her neck in a race crash in 2008.

Meares will finish her career with six Olympic medals

In Rio, Meares still managed to win Australian cycling’s only individual medal of the Games with bronze in the women’s keirin final.

If Meares does retire, she goes out as a hugely respected and valued member of the Australian team having led the Aussies and carried the flag at the opening ceremony of the 2014 Commonwealth Games and this year’s Rio Olympics.

Meares was unavailable for comment yesterday but her anticipated retirement is among a raft of changes at Cycling Australia’s high performance unit.

High performance manager Kevin Tabotta has resigned to take up a new position in elite sport which is yet to be announced while some coaches may change roles ahead of the first world cup of the new season next month.

Originally published as Anna Meares to announce her retirement despite the lure of home town Commonwealth Games