Hasn’t the past 16 days been inspirational! 16 days of the Beijing Olympics to be precise.
Personally I find the Olympics to be absolute inspiration. It is in my humble opinion the most inspirational event ever. OK so the Olympics come every 4 years, but each one is always fantastic and Beijing is no exception.
In the past 16 days, I have watched various sports from Gymnastics, to hurdles, to road cycling, to volleyball, basketball and hockey. Then there was the track cycling one of my personal favorites!
This year the cycling was once again fantastic, but what made it more inspirational was the story of Athens Olympic Gold Medalist Anna Meares.
Anna Meares is one of Australia’s best cyclists. She won the 500m Time Trial in the Athens Olympics in 2004. She then went on to win Silver in the Sprint in Beijing just a few days ago.
What many people may not know is that Anna Meares almost had her life changed just over 7 months ago.
In January of this year Meares crashed in a race in Los Angeles breaking her neck. She was just two millimeters away from becoming a quadriplegic. Did i mention the crash occurred this year! an olympic year – 2008! Just 7 months out from the Olympic games.
For someone to have crashed and broken their neck is one thing, but getting back on a bike and qualifying for an Olympics is another thing. However Meares did just that. She got back on her bike and soon enough was back to her best almost setting a personal best in her Olympic qualifying race.
What happened next was amazing. Meares beat Chinese rider Guo Shuang in an event filled semi-final of the sprint. The Chinese rider won the first heat with Meares winning the second. It came down to a final heat which was re-run after Guo fell. Guo then won the heat but was disqualified for pushing Meares.
Meares went through to the final sprint, and won Silver! Such an amazing achievement after such a horrific crash.
Meares is a true inspiration and one of the heroes of the Beijing Olympics.
