Australia's injured 500 metres time trial world record holder Anna Meares expects to qualify for the Beijing Olympics despite breaking a bone in her neck last month, according to national cycling coach Martin Barras.

Meares was in a wheelchair following the horrific race fall in Los Angeles but is making steady progress and can now walk with the help of a brace.

Barras said Meares, who won the women's 500 metres time trial gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, was expected to resume riding in March and will have made a full recovery by the time the Beijing Games roll around in August.

The 24-year-old's biggest fear is that she may miss out on the Games because her ranking will slip but Barras was confident Meares had enough points to secure a place.

"I've crunched the numbers more in the last few days and it now looks like she will qualify for Beijing by four points," Barras said.

"That's four out of the 714 points she currently has. That's how tight it is, we're talking an onion peel.

"The reality is, her neck injury was that serious we cannot muck around with it -- we cannot push her recovery schedule. The best case is she's back on the bike, of her own volition, by mid-March."

Meares had set her sights on defending her time trial title in Beijing but has switched to the sprint after her preferred event was scrapped from the programme to make way for BMX.

The youngest daughter of a Queensland coalminer, Meares burst on to the international stage when she won the 2004 world championship in Melbourne.

Her elder sister Kerrie was favourite to take the title but had to pull out when doctors told her she risked permanent back damage if she did not undergo immediate surgery after tumbling over the handlebars in a race in Russia.

Meares took her place and duly won the world crown. She then broke the world record to add the Olympic title later that year but almost quit the sport in 2005 after suffering a bulging disc.

She made a successful comeback in 2006, winning the Commonwealth Games title and breaking her own world record. Meares then set another world mark to win her second world title in 2007.

Reuters