The Australian great reflected on recent progress internationally at a Gold Coast 2018 press conference here, which was largely centered around gender issues.

Track cycling is among several sports to have had disciplines added after Glasgow 2014, leading to the Commonwealth Games boasting an equal number of medal events for men and women.

Women's team sprint, keirin and team pursuit events have been added to the programme for the Games here.

The move comes a year on from the women's madison being added by the UCI to their World Cup and World Championships, ensuring gender parity in terms of disciplines.

Both the men's and women's madison events were then added to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic programme in June last year.

Differences still remain between the men's and women's track programmes, with disparities in the distances covered and the number of riders participating in the team sprint events.

"I think the steps going forward by the UCI and governing bodies within different nations around track cycling is wonderful," said Meares, the joint most successful female athlete at the UCI Track World Championships in history.

"We now have the women's madison included internationally, which is really starting to grow in numbers and involvement.

"Here at the Commonwealth Games you have a three man line-up in the team sprint and a two-woman line-up in the women's team sprint.

"The sport actually trialled the three riders in the women's team sprint way back in 2002 and 2003, but we just did not have the numbers available to fill those positions and the development in a number of countries, we did not have three sprinters.

"The women's time trial event is 500 metres and the men's is 1000m, so it is reflective of the team sprint positions."

Meares, who is an ambassador for Gold Coast 2018 and has the Brisbane-based velodrome for the Games named after her, hopes further progress can be made in the coming years.

The five-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist suggested that as strength-in-depth grows across women's events, the format of the team sprint and distances contested could be made the same as the men.

"I certainly would like to think that the progression would go forward and perhaps the time trial distance would go out from maybe 500m to say 750m for women," she said.

"Then you will see more women being involved in sprinting in each country to eventually fill those positions.

"The team pursuit is included here for the first time at the Commonwealth Games and when that first came into international competition, it had three women contesting a distance of three kilometres.

"As the event developed and progressed, it went to four women and 4,000m, which is equal to the men.

"You have to have a platform to start these events to have to be able to develop and grow them."