![]() Thanks straya, right on cue, one Bundjalung man wrote. Source: Craig Golding Mr Blackwell’s sentiments were shared by many Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians on Twitter. She won a silver medal at the 1996 Olympics followed by gold at the 2000 summer. Cathy Freeman holds up the Aboriginal flag after her 400m win at the 1994 Commonwealth Games. But even the often-stern International Olympic Committee seemed pleased to look the other way, in quiet admiration of the valiant effort of this young Australian. Cathy Freeman is a former Australian sprinter and Olympic medallist. On her victory lap, Freeman carried both the Australian flag and the Aboriginal national pendent, which strictly was against Olympic rules. 1 almost consistently before Sydney beckoned for her finest hour. Over the next four years, she was ranked No. Four years later, she did just that, clocking 48.63s as she took silver behind Frenchwoman Marie-Jose Perec after being engaged in a neck-to-neck battle until the very last. Only 19 years old then, Freeman failed to make an impression, but her farsightedness was noticeable when she scribbled “48.60, Atlanta” on the back of an airsickness bag on the return flight home. Naomi Osaka loses to Marketa Vondrousova, knocked out of Olympic tennis Herein, she made steady progress and was selected to represent her country at Barcelona 1992. The transition to the one-lap race occurred only after Freeman turned senior. Freeman discovered her love of track and field after her first race when she was eight years old. Her mother was of the Kuku Yalanji people of far north Queensland, and her father was from the Burri Gubba people of central Queensland. ![]() In the competitive arena, she was more of a 100m runner at the junior level. Catherine Astrid Salome Freeman was born on February 16, 1973, in Mackay, Queensland, Australia. In exactly 49.11s, a new chapter was scripted into the history of Australian sport and Cathy had the undivided attention of the entire country.īorn in 1973, Cathy had an early initiation into the sport at the insistence of her stepfather and is credited as having recorded her first win as an eight-year-old. The former home of Aussie hero Cathy Freeman has bolted onto the market in Kew, where she lived when she won her Olympic gold medal. ![]() Yep, the boisterous and the crazy sports home fans could not have asked for more. Yet, the opening act was to be only a sideshow in the end, as days later Cathy was again in focus and held the role of the central character of the plot as she became her country’s second athlete to win the 400m gold, which, incidentally, also turned out to be Australia’s all-time 100th gold at the Games. It also helped that Freeman was then world champion in the 400m and a silver medallist from Atlanta 1996. Cathy Freeman, an Aboriginal, being given such a pride of place in Australia’s biggest sporting moment in the new millennium was one that sought absolute reconciliation. As she entered the Olympic stadium midway through the opening ceremony of Sydney 2000, dressed in a luminescent white bodysuit to transfer the Games flame to the imposing cauldron at the far end, the message that went out was loud and clear.
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