If Anna Meares isn’t already one of your sporting heroes, your priorities are wrong.
A world record in the 500m time trial over the weekend at the UCI World Cup event in Aguascalientes, Mexico, shows that the Olympic sprint champion is still at the pinnacle of the track cycling world.
Meares is the first and only woman to have broken the 33 second mark for the 500m, clocking 32.836s.
A quote from Meares’ post-win Cycling Australia press release highlights just how long she has been smashing records in this event,
“It’s really weird, it’s taken me nearly 10 years to improve just over a second in the discipline. In Athens in 2004 I was 20-years-old and became the first women to ride a sub 34 [33.952] and now, ten years later at 30 years of age, I’m the first to ride a sub 33.”
“I am just so proud.”
How, after a decade of commitment and world-beating performance, from a woman who has every right to hang up her wheels and reflect on a glittering career, can Meares still summon the desire to win?
“I just wanted it, I wanted it really badly.”
Wanted it enough to train hard enough, that is.
With her palmares and profile, Meares is obviously an inspiration to the younger riders in the national squad. A separate Cycling Australia press release had a quote from Luke Davison, who went on to win gold in the Omnium,
“I was warming up and saw Anna Meares break the world record. It’s great for the whole team when everyone is on that type of high. She’s a great role model and she’s a great leader of the team.”
It’s impossible to disagree with Davison, Anna Meares is an amazing example to follow, and her performance inspired her teammates Rebecca Wiasak (women’s pursuit), Matthew Glaetzer (men’s sprint), and Davison to their own victories.
The men’s team pursuit squad (Glenn O’Shea, Alex Edmondson, Alex Morgan, and Mitchell Mulhern) had won gold on the first day of the meet.
Meares herself returned to break another world record in the sprint qualifying, steaming up Aguascalientes with a 10.487s.
Sadly (depending on your point of view), Germany’s Kristina Vogel demolished the mark with a 10.384s, and ultimately her speed was too much for Meares in the final, taking a well-earned gold medal.
The rivalry with Victoria Pendleton ended following the British champion’s retirement, but perhaps we can now look forward to a similar one between Meares and Vogel.
It was a similar story for Matthew Glaetzer in the men’s sprint. He bettered the previous world record in qualifying with a 9.459s, but was outgunned by French sensation Francois Pervis, who rode a scintillating 9.347s.
It was a happier ending for Glaetzer: he eventually defeated Olympic champion Jason Kenny (GB) 2-0 in the final.
Pervis, clearly in outrageous form, went on to shatter the world record in the 1000m, with a 56.303s.
Germany’s Maximilian Levy won silver with a very tidy 57.949s, but with a margin of 1.3 seconds he might as well have been on a different velodrome for all the distance between gold and silver.
All of these world records were certainly helped by the fact that the velodrome is at an altitude of 1,900m above sea level.
Thinner air reduces aerodynamic drag on riders, and although this slightly reduces the oxygen available, this is not an important factor in short sprint events where energy is produced anaerobically.
But Meares has competed at altitude many times through her career.
The fact that she is still producing huge personal bests, and that she has returned to this level so quickly after a post-Olympic layoff, must be intimidating for her rivals.
She also had to beat everyone else riding in the same conditions.
A decade at the top. More achievements, awards, and victories than most people could dream of. Olympic glory. Epic rivalries.
And still hungry to train, to race, to get better. And to break world records.
Anna Meares. Wow.
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