Cycling legend Anna Meares named as Aussie team leader for Paris 2024 Olympics

Just as she did when she was racing her bike, Anna Meares has timed her run to perfection to win the coveted role as Australia’s chef de mission for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Julian Linden

3 min read

November 20, 2022 - 8:00PM

News Corp Australia Sports Newsroom

Olympics

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Cycling legend Anna Meares has been appointed as Australia’s team leader for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Just as she did when she was racing her bike, Meares timed her run to perfection to win the coveted role as Australia’s chef de mission, the fancy title given to the person in charge of the Aussie Olympic contingent.

“I feel a little bit nervous, but at the same time, it is a huge honour,” Meares told News Corp.

“It‘s a real privilege to be an Olympian and to be able to lead the team, like I did as flag bearer in Rio, was another level.

“This is the place where I want to go, I want to work behind the scenes to try and help someone else succeed at that level.

“I know what it feels like to win and lose at that level of competition, so I feel like I’ve got a good athlete’s perspective to be able to really connect with them on that level.”

Olympic gold medallist Anna Meares will be the chef de mission for 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Picture: Zak Simmonds

Meares’ CV in track cycling is incomparable. Despite breaking her neck in a horrific crash in early 2008, the Rockhampton-raised sprinter competed at four Olympics – Athens (2004), Beijing (2008), London (2012) and Rio 2016) – winning a total of six medals.

She also won a stack of world championships and Commonwealth Games titles before retiring in 2016. But the itch to remain involved in high-performance sport remained.

So she set herself a long-term goal of becoming chef de mission one day. To get some experience, she served as an ambassador for the 2018 Commonwealth Games then general manager at this year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

But it was only a few months ago, when the Australian Olympic Committee president found out she was interested in the chef’s job, that things suddenly took off.

“I got a photo call from Ian Chesterman, then the next day he flew up to meet me,” Meares said.

“I thought, this is perfect, I’ll get the chance to talk to a gentleman who has been chef de mission on seven occasions, six at the Winter Olympics, one at Summer, president of the AOC, to ask personally what can I do to get some experience or give me some guidance how I can be the chef for Australia one day, thinking maybe in 10 or 15 or 20 years time, especially for Brisbane in 2032.

“And he said, ‘Well, I’m actually looking for a chef for Paris’, and my jaw just dropped. He said, ‘Are you interested?’.”

Anna Meares after winning gold for Australia at the London Olympics in 2012.

Chesterman conferred with AOC chief executive and a few months later they offered Meares the role for the Paris Olympics, which will officially open on 26 July 2024.

“She’s a fantastic person to lead the team,” Chesterman said.

“She has amazing credentials as an Olympic athlete which she brings to the job. She‘s someone who’s widely respected, not only by administrators and media and the general public, but most importantly by the athletes.

“I think our athletes will really enjoy being led by someone like them or by Anna Meares.”

The role of chef de mission is not all pomp and ceremony. It gets tricky, too.

As well as supporting the athletes, the chef has to front daily media conferences to deal with all the curly issues that inevitably arise during an Olympics.

“You’re ultimately the leader of the team so the buck and the responsibility during the Games time stops with you,” Chesterman said.

“You’re also the public face of the team in lots of situations – in good and bad.

“So it’s a big role. It’s a big responsibility, but we’re really confident that Anna is going to do a fantastic job.”