CYCLING - TRACK: As she enters her fourth Olympic Games, dual Olympic gold medallist Anna Meares is predicting the fastest women’s sprint competition in Olympic history and also freely admits she is feeling the nerves just days away from arriving in Rio.

The five-time Olympic medallist Meares will juggle a busy schedule in Rio, she will contest three events - team sprint, sprint and keirin – and will also play the role as team captain and flagbearer for the opening ceremony.

“I always go into these competitions nervous and anxious and I like that because it tells me that this is still important to me,” said Meares, the defending Olympic sprint champion.

Meares certainly has achieved greatness during her three Olympics, with two gold medals - time trial gold while on debut in 2004 and then an amazing sprint gold in 2012.  Just how she will perform in Rio, even she isn’t willing to guess.

“I know that I am going to go into Rio in my best physical condition, and I think the best mental and emotional position that I possibly could be in,” Meares told Cycling Australia from her Los Angeles based team training camp.

“Whether that is going to be good enough to deliver gold medals, I don’t know. I can’t guarantee I will deliver it.  I work very hard to out my best out there and I will guarantee that I will give my very best and often that looks after itself.

“What I have learned from my losses, I think that has helped me be as successful as I have over a long period of time.”

And the experience Meares has gained over her three Olympic campaigns will certainly come in handy in 2016 at what she has predicted to be the fastest Olympic Games in history.

“I feel it is very different as it was for London and Beijing.  This is first Olympic Games where depth is very strong, a big field of fast women, strong women, smart women,” said Meares, who at 32 has proven great form in 2016 with keirin silver and fourth in both the sprint and team sprint (with Morton) at the World Championships earlier this year.

“The 2016 games could be the first time we might have 10 women qualify sub-11 seconds in the flying 200m sprint, where as in London there was two or three,” predicted Meares, who also lauded team mate and reigning Commonwealth Games sprint champion Stephanie Morton (SA) as one to watch in a very deep field.

“Certainly this Olympic cycle Russia and China have come along really strongly, in particular in the team sprint, you also can’t go past Germany’s Kristina Vogel too.

“But I think my own teammate Stephanie Morton will be a real handful and a tough competitor, which is great news for both me and my country."

Whatever Meares achieves on the track, she is guaranteed one personal best in Rio.  For the first time in her career, she will march in an Olympic Games opening ceremony after the Australian Olympic Committee announced earlier this month she would be team captain and flagbearer.

“I have some time to reflect on why and the reasons I was awarded it, I am really proud I will be doing this role,” said Meares, who is eagerly awaiting the chance to see the ceremony first hand.

“I have never walked an Olympic ceremony, I wasn’t even in the country in the Athens and Beijing as the cycling competition was often in the last week of the Games.  I remember watching it on television with my teammates at training camps, while in London it was a team choice that no one marched.

“I will be taking stock on the night, really taking it in, as very few Australians have been flag bearer for both the Commonwealth and Olympic Games, and I am very proud and respectful of what that means.

“So yes, one of the best things about being the flagbearer is you actually get to march!”

 So at the end of the Games, what result will make Meares happy?

“I hope at the end of the Games I make my coach, my manager, my teammates, all the people who have made me into the person that I am, very proud,” said Meares who is well aware of the support team around her that has helped her along her sensational journey.

“It takes a great team a positive team and a honest team that you can work with day in and day out.

“I have leaned on a lot of people, I have had three amazing coaches most recently with Gary West, who have enabled me do what I do and for as long as and successful as I am.”

And just what is it, when she has achieved almost everything there is to offer in her sport, that keeps her going?

“I have a love for what I do,” Meares exclaimed. “A lot of people spend a lot of time searching for what they are passionate about, and I have found that. 

“It is hard, it is challenging, and there are times I sit there and pull my hair out and ask myself why do you love this, but sometimes you go back to real life situations and you realise why you love it.

“And I love what I do."

The women's team sprint final is on August 12, keirin final is on August 13, while the sprint final is on August 16.

Amy McCann
Cycling Australia