Anna Meares

One of Australia's greatest athletes, cyclist Anna Meares staged one of the sport's greatest comebacks. Ten days after a life-threatening track accident in January 2008 in which she broke her neck, she was back training for the Beijing Olympics, where she won silver just seven months later.

In all, Meares won 11 world championships, six Olympic medals (including a gold and bronze in Athens in 2004 and in London in 2012, and a bronze in Rio in 2016) and five Commonwealth Games gold medals, before retiring in 2016.

Artist Philip Barnes painted Meares for the 2014 Archibald Prize, capturing 'the transformation that comes over her when she slips on her race helmet' and the intense focus and determination that enabled her to achieve so highly.