Off the back of a stellar season on the track, world champion cyclists Anna Meares OAM and Kaarle McCulloch have recognised the support of the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and the State and Territory Institutes and Academies of Sport.

The dynamic duo capped off outstanding years by taking home trophies from the 2011 AIS Athlete of the Year Awards, while Meares claimed two major honours at the 2011 Australian Cyclist of the Year Awards.

Both cyclists are products of State and Territory Institutes, Academies of Sport and the AIS, who collectively form the National Institutes Network.

A product of Rockhampton in Queensland, Meares has benefited from the support of her family and scholarships from the Western Australian Institute of Sport, Queensland Academy of Sport, South Australian Sport Institute, and the AIS working in partnership with Cycling Australia.

Meares spoke about the support of the AIS after winning her second AIS Athlete of the Year title earlier this month.

“Once the AIS came on board and took some burden off mum and dad with the financial constraints of an expensive sport, especially with a young growing athlete where bikes need to be you know constantly made bigger and equipment needs to be replaced, the focus can be put more on the performance of the athlete and the development of the athlete,” Meares said.

“I’ve had work (at the AIS) across the board, from media training, to career and education, to handling psychological issues like stress and pressure, and that’s aside from the physical development and the lessons that come along with it as well.”

McCulloch, who partnered Meares to win the 2011 track cycling Team Sprint World Championship, is originally a product of the New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS), before she picked up an AIS residential scholarship in 2009.

The 23-year-old, who was jointly named with Meares as part of the AIS Team of the Year, says the support of both the AIS and NSWIS have underpinned her elite success.

“NSWIS has been fantastic to me as well as the AIS, you know I wouldn’t have got in the AIS if I hadn’t have had NSWIS and I’m sure that that’s probably the same for most other sports,” McCulloch said.

“If you don’t have that support as a younger athlete you can’t develop properly and therefore you won’t make it on the big stage, so NSWIS, AIS, right through from my club really, the grassroots of sport and cycling in Australia is just really, really great.”

Meares and McCulloch will headline the Australian cycling team’s charge towards the London Games and will have the chance to perform in front of an Australian crowd when the 2012 UCI World Track Cycling Championships are held at the Hisense Arena in Melbourne in April next year.

Cycling dominated the 2011 AIS Athlete of the Year Awards, winning four of the five major awards on offer.

2011 AIS Athlete of the Year Awards

• AIS Athlete of the Year: Anna Meares (Cycling)
• Junior Athlete of the Year: Luke Durbridge (Cycling)
• Coach of the Year: Ben Wordsworth (Snowboard)
• Team of the Year: Anna Meares & Kaarle McCulloch (Track Cycling – Team Sprint)
• Program of the Year: AIS cycling program.