Olympic champion Anna Meares is one of Australia’s top track cyclists.

Beginning her career at just age 11, Anna followed her older sister Kerrie into the sport. Inspired by Kathy Watt’s gold medal win at the 1994 Commonwealth Games, she decided early on that this was her sport.

Living in the small mining town of Middlemount in Queensland, the nearest cycling track was more than two hours drive away in Mackay. But this did not seem to bother Anna too much — it just made her more determined to succeed.

At the 2002 Commonwealth Games, she just missed out on the bronze in the 500-metre time trial, while sister Kerrie took home gold. Anna made sure this was a family affair and took home the bronze in the sprint.

At the Athens 2004 Olympics, she won bronze in the 200-metre sprint, but it was her performance in the 500-metre time trial that added Anna’s name to the history books. She stormed home in the world record time of 33.952 seconds, beating reigning world record holder, Yonghua Jiang of China.

This made Anna the first woman to break the 34-second barrier for the 500-metre time trial and the first Australian woman to win Olympic gold.

At the 2004 Time Trial World Titles in Melbourne, Anna won the title of time trial champion and added silver to her collection for the sprint event. She also came first in the 2004 World Cup Time Trial in Sydney.

Track cycling is one of those dangerous sports we love to fear. Athletes scream around the track hitting speeds of up to 70 kilometres per hour. A split second of misjudgment and the consequences can be life threatening.

In January 2008 at the World Cup event in Los Angeles, Anna crashed hard, breaking her neck. She had fractured her C2 vertebra which controls the body’s breathing — two millimetres more and she would have been a quadriplegic or could have died.

Returning to Australia in a wheelchair, Anna toyed with the idea of retiring from the sport. With a string of titles to her name, including an Olympic gold medal, she could be proud of what she had achieved.

But just seven short months after her horrific accident, the tenacious Anna was back on the bike, heading straight for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

This tough girl from Queensland fought back from near death to take silver — a medal she said was better than the Athens gold.

‘I’ve had to fight hard for this one. For all I care this one’s gold’.