It’s what you didn’t know about Anna Meares that says it all

ANNA Meares — Australia’s flagbearer at the Rio Olympics — is loved by athletes and fans alike for her cycling exploits. But the woman behind the champion is every bit as impressive, says Reece Homfray.

Anna Meares ... popular choice for Aussie flagbearer. Picture: Tim Carrafa

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ANNA Meares is the athlete’s leader and the people’s champion.

The announcement that she will carry the Australian flag at the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics was as well received by the teammates she will march with, as it was by everyday Australians who will be glued to their TVs back home.

And why? Because while Meares has spent the past 16 years riding her way into Australians’ hearts by winning two gold medals, 11 world titles and is now off to her fourth Olympics, there have been so many people who feel like they’ve ridden every bump of the journey with her.

We watched when she won gold in Athens in 2004 as a 20-year-old, then gasped when she crashed in Los Angeles in 2008 and later held a press conference in a wheelchair and a neck brace, vowing she would still get to Beijing in eight months’ time.

True to her word, she did, and won a silver medal that was as good as any gold could ever be.

Four years later, in the wee hours of a freezing night in August, the lights were on in thousands of loungerooms across Australia as we sat up and watched her win the unwinnable sprint final against arch rival Victoria Pendleton on British soil to claim a second gold medal.

But it’s also what most people don’t know about Anna Meares that reveals why she is so loved by her teammates, respected by her rivals and adored by her fans.

Beneath the tough exterior of the most successful female track cyclist of all time is a very normal, humble person, not immune to the same challenges faced by anyone else.

Twice she almost quit the sport in the past 18 months as she dealt with personal issues but with the support of those around her got up and kept going.

Asked to describe herself, Meares says she is a coal miner’s daughter first, Olympic champion second.

For her 30th birthday in 2013, Meares celebrated with family and friends with a bush band, mechanical bucking bull, egg-and-spoon races, rum and lamingtons on a suburban cricket oval in Adelaide.

After the London Olympics she received hundreds of letters of congratulations and made a point of personally responding to every single one of them — even if it did take until Christmas to put the final handwritten letter in the post.

Meares is often the one who will organise group birthday presents or a cake for her teammates, who books the team dinners or has everyone over to her place before they fly overseas for another competition.

When her long-time teammate Jason Niblett retired from the national program in 2013, Meares grabbed the video camera and spent weeks recording messages from his teammates to surprise him at his farewell party.

It’s not that surprising really because Meares’ heart is made of the same stuff as the two Olympic medals that take pride of place at her home.

In 2014, she shaved her head for seriously ill children in Adelaide and wrote to Wallabies legend John Eales and Opals star Lauren Jackson asking them to support the cause.

As part of her fundraising she stood outside an Adelaide Bunnings store in 30-degree heat all day cooking sausages and rattling tins. She was there to set up the tent and was cleaning the barbecue at the end.

The Australian public might know Meares as a cyclist but the sport doesn’t define her.

At a Rio presentation last year she was asked to name her Olympic highlight and said she actually had two.

As the audience waited to see which gold medal she valued more, her answer surprised everyone.

Her Olympic highlights, she said, were being completely star struck when she met Ian Thorpe in the athletes’ village and when she was mentored by the late Peter Brock, both in Athens in 2004.

If Meares was asked to name a third highlight she’d probably trot out another of her favourite yarns about the time her dad got to meet former Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh in London.

But if you ask Meares in a month’s time to name the highlight of her Olympic career it’s a fair chance you’d get a very different answer.

The 32-year-old could win another three gold medals in Rio but it probably won’t come close to the moment when she leads her country in the opening ceremony, waving the flag that even further unites an Olympic champion with everyday Aussies cheering her on back home.

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Originally published as It’s what you didn’t know about Anna Meares that says it all