Anna Meares yet to decide on retirement

Anna Meares has not ruled out continuing her decorated track cycling career and she has no regrets about her Rio Olympics campaign, which ended in a 10th place finish in the sprint.
Anna Meares' Olympic record

Athens 2004 - Gold, women's 500m time trial
Athens 2004 - Bronze, women's sprint
Beijing 2008 - Silver, women's sprint
London 2012 - Gold, women's sprint
London 2012 - Bronze, women's team sprint
Rio 2016 - Bronze, women's keirin

Meares was the defending sprint champion but was out of medal contention early in the event, having to settle for the race to decide ninth to 12th place.

The 32-year-old was visibly upset immediately after the race at the Olympic Velodrome, giving the impression her final appearance in Rio would be her competitive farewell.

Her career has been highlighted by six Olympic medals — including two gold — across four Games, as well 11 world championships and five Commonwealth Games titles.

But Meares has also been forced to overcome several challenges, most notably when she fractured her C2 vertebrae and dislocated her shoulder among a series of injuries she sustained during a World Cup meet in Los Angeles in early 2008.

There were fears she might never ride again, yet seven months later she had recovered to win a silver medal in the sprint at the Beijing Olympics.

Meares is adamant she has not made a decision on whether she will retire, and will give herself time with family and friends back in Australia before considering her future.

"I've spent a lot of time being selfish and focusing on myself and my own goals and I've had the love and support of so many people to be able to do that," she said.

"That has taken time away from my involvement with them and their lives. I'd like to be able to go home and give some of that back.

"[To give] some time back to family and friends who have afforded me that and give myself some time just to be out of this environment to make a decision on my cycling future.

I just need a week or two at home with those people.

Aside from the sprint, Meares, who was Australia's team captain and flag bearer, will walk away from Rio with a bronze medal in the keirin and a fourth-place finish in the team sprint alongside Stephanie Morton.

She took pride in those results, realising those were the events in which she had best chance of claiming a medal.

I knew my best chances were going to be in the keirin and the team sprint where we went close to a bronze medal," Meares said.

"I'm very proud of the bronze medal that I did win in the keirin and that's where all my goals lay.

"I know that we are very much driven by a winning culture and gold medals and I've had many an opportunity to stand on that top step.

"This time around for me it was about those two goals and even though I ended the way that it did, I'm very proud of achieving what I set out to achieve."