Meares - The Anna Meares Story

First published in Australia in 2009 by

New Holland Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd

Sydney * Auckland * London * Cape Town

www.newholland.com.au

1/66 Gibbes Street NSW 2067 Australia

218 Lake Road Northcoate Auckland New Zealand

New Edgeware Road London W2 2EA United Kingdom

80 McKenzie Street Cape Town 8001 South Africa

Copyright in text: Anna Meares

Copyright in pictures: Meares family or as indicated

Copyright New Holland Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders.

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication Data:

ISBN: 9781741109085 (pbk.)
e-ISBN: 9781921655586 (pbk.)

I dedicate this book to my mum and dad. Thank you for believing in me at such a young age and for giving me the chance to follow my dreams. Thank you for the undying love and support you give me. I take great pride in knowing what I do makes you proud.

I dedicate this book to my brothers and sisters: Scott, Tracey and Kerrie. I love you all so very much. Thank you for your understanding and support throughout the years and for always being there for me.

I dedicate this book to my husband Mark. For being my rock. Through good and bad you have always been there with a hug and a kiss and advice that, although not always taken, was almost always right. Thanks for making me feel so special and so loved. The thing I hold most valuable in my life is the honour of being your wife.

I dedicate this book to my coach Martin Barras, whom I owe so much for all he has done for me. He has enriched my life with lessons, guidance and passion, and through this I have become a better person.

Finally I dedicate this book to my nieces Piper Maree and Brooklyn Anne Brown. May this book one day inspire you to become all that you can be.

Buttgen Velodrome, August 2008.

There was Anna and her track bike. And there was me, standing in between.

Marv! I am getting on my bike!

Anna Meares wanted to get on her bike. Its an everyday fact, right?

As a matter of fact it wasnt. There was the accident. It changed everything. Nothing was taken for granted any more. We had nothing to lose. Every time Anna got on the bike, it mattered. So I gave her the only answer I could.

No.

Two weeks before the 2008 Olympics she injured her groin. We treated it and four days later she got back on the track. All went well for an hour then the pain reappeared. We all knew. Back to square one. No training and full rehab for a week just to make sure she would get to the start line in Beijing, uninjured. That meant getting back on the track only four days before she was to start racing.

For me it was a no brainer. You plan, re-plan, add and subtract days and sessions, measure and adjust. Annas Olympics started on Sunday 17 August 2008 on the Laoshan Velodrome in Beijing. Point blank. Forget about the neck or the groin. My job was to show her the way there.

The day after the accident, the supervising doctor at the Little Company of Mary Hospital in Los Angeles had given us the sermon: I have just reviewed all the scans. She was within two millimetres of going into a respirator for life or possibly dying. God has a plan for this young woman. Now, Im not a believer, but it was a sobering moment. Nothing was said for a few minutes. Then we realised that this was the way forward: Anna was going to be all right.

Later that day, I went to see her before my flight home. She was still uncertain when she would be fit to return home herself. We chatted for a few minutes. Then it came out: Marv, I am going to the Olympics!

I wish I could say it surprised me, blew me away or that I thought it was mindless bravado.

It was a statement. Her statement. I did not think about it.

I returned home and spoke with the doctor and the physio. The timeline they were talking about was a world remote from how I have prepared Olympians before. I spoke with Bear (Craig Colduck, the teams conditioner and sport scientist). He was my partner in our little enterprise. He did not think it was feasible to bring Anna back within the timeline we had. But, like me, he was not questioning her statement. He would apply a typical Bear solution to our mission: Big picture stuff.

Annas clock had been ticking for years. She is a Rocky (Rockhampton, Qld) girl and although I eventually got her out of Rocky to join us in Adelaide, I never got Rocky out of her. She bought a house there and we always joked that the names of her kids were already written on the bedroom doors. Shes had a plan. She always does.

So Bears thinking went as follows: Its either Beijing or Rocky. Despite the severity of her injuries, in our best judgement (we are males after all), giving birth sounds pretty hard and painful. Lets give her training that will probe her commitment to the mission every session and will ultimately get her strong and hard enough to have a brood. She will have to survive every day, one by one. We had covered all bases. This would become the Warrior Princess program.

Warrior Princess she is. Anyone who has seen Mizz Anna race knows how ruthless she is when it comes to winning. And her locker at the velodrome in Adelaide is not labelled Princess because she descends from royalty. She is from an honest, hard-working coal mining family. But she likes things her own way. Princess Annas way!

So there I stood, two weeks out from Beijing, between Anna and her track bike. She is agitated, angry, frustrated!

Marv, I am fine. I am getting on my bike.

No.

She has moved closer. I stand where I am. She moves left, I move with her. Same to the right. We are staring each other.

Track sprinting attracts a very specific type of athlete. Its a bit like prize fighting. Two riders, one arena, everyones attention. A winner and a loser, for all to see. Physical contact and crashes at high speed on a curved track built like a piece of polished furniture. No shrinking violet survives in this environment. Intimidation reigns supreme.

When we started the Olympic preparation in May 2007, we went through all the skills Anna needed at the top level. Riding so slow that your tyres are slipping at the top of seven metres of banked boards. Riding blind. Touching wheels and bodies at full speed. At every race we went to, we made a point of visiting opponents in their area. We also did a lot of staring practice. Stand inside someones personal space, stare them in the eye until they have to look away. Anna got very good at it.

She is closer still. She is livid. Her lips are quivering. She cannot stand any closer without touching me. I will not touch her.

Marv, I need to get on my bike.

I love Anna. She is a beautiful person. She is my friend. I want the world for her. She is kind, yet really firm in her beliefs. She is a leader. More importantly, she is a realist. In any situation, I can tell her the facts and know that she will deal with it.

I said earlier I am not a believer but it is not true. I believe in myself. I believe in what I do. And I believe in Mizz Anna, the Warrior Princess!