Cathy Freeman

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Olympic medal record
Women's athletics
Gold	2000 Sydney	400 metres
Silver	1996 Atlanta	400 metres

Catherine Astrid Salome Freeman (born 16 February 1973) is an Australian athlete who is particularly associated with the 400 m race. As an Aboriginal Australian, she is regarded as a role model for her people, and by many in the non-Aboriginal community as a symbol of national reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.

She was born in Mackay, Queensland. At the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, she created a great deal of controversy by waving the Aboriginal flag as well as the Australian flag during her victory lap of the arena. Normally, only the national flag is so waved. There was no such controversy when she did the same after winning her gold medal at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, even though the use of non-national flags at the Olympics is officially forbidden.

Freeman won two World Championships in the 400 m event, in Athens (1997) and Seville (1999). At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, she won the silver medal behind Marie-José Perec of France.

On 25 September 2000 Cathy Freeman won the 400 m Olympic title in front of her home crowd during the Sydney 2000 Olympics. In her own words, she "ran her little black butt off". The medal was regarded as Australia's 100th gold medal. Earlier, she had lit the Olympic Flame in the Games' Opening Ceremony. This made her the only person to light the Olympic flame and go on to win a gold medal at the same games.

Freeman had a long-term romantic relationship with Nick Bideau, her manager, that ended in acrimony and legal wranglings over Freeman's endorsement earnings.^[1]

Freeman married Sandy Bodecker, a Nike executive, in 1999, nursing him through a bout of cancer, taking an extended break from the track to do so. She announced their separation in February 2003.

Returning to running in 2003, Freeman clearly struggled for form and motivation after losses to upcoming Australian runner Jana Pittman, and a fifth placing in an athletics meet in May where she was thoroughly trounced by Ana Guevara of Mexico, the fastest 400 m runner at that time.

On 15 July 2003 Freeman announced her retirement from competitive running.

On 15 March 2006, Cathy Freeman was one of the final runners in the Queen's Baton Relay, bringing the baton into the MCG at the Opening Ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

[edit] Achievements

Year	Tournament	Venue	Result	Event
1990	Australian Championships	Melbourne, Australia	2nd	100 m
1990	Australian Championships	Melbourne, Australia	1st	200 m
1990	Commonwealth Games	Auckland, New Zealand	1st	4x100 m Relay
1990	World Junior Championships	Plovdiv, Bulgaria	5th	4x100 m Relay
1990	World Junior Championships	Plovdiv, Bulgaria	5th	200 m
1991	Australian Championships	Sydney, Australia	1st	200 m
1992	1992 Summer Olympics	Barcelona, Spain	7th	4x400 m Relay
1992	Australian Championships	Adelaide, Australia	2nd	200 m
1992	Australian Championships	Adelaide, Australia	3rd	400 m
1992	World Junior Championships	Seoul, Korea	6th	4x400 m Relay
1992	World Junior Championships	Seoul, Korea	2nd	200 m
1993	Australian Championships	Queensland, Australia	2nd	200 m
1994	Australian Championships	Sydney, Australia	1st	100 m
1994	Australian Championships	Sydney, Australia	1st	200 m
1994	Commonwealth Games	Victoria, British Columbia	2nd	4x100 m Relay
1994	Commonwealth Games	Victoria, British Columbia	1st	200 m
1994	Commonwealth Games	Victoria, British Columbia	1st	400 m
1994	IAAF Grand Prix Final	Paris, France	2nd	400 m
1995	Australian Championships	Sydney, Australia	2nd	200 m
1995	Australian Championships	Sydney, Australia	1st	400 m
1995	IAAF World Championships	Göteborg, Sweden	4th	400 m
1995	IAAF World Championships	Göteborg, Sweden	3rd	4x400 m Relay
1996	1996 Summer Olympics	Atlanta, Georgia	2nd	400 m
1996	Australian Championships	Sydney, Australia	1st	100 m
1996	Australian Championships	Sydney, Australia	1st	200 m
1996	IAAF Grand Prix Final	Milan, Italy	1st	400 m
1997	Australian Championships	Melbourne, Australia	2nd	200 m
1997	Australian Championships	Melbourne, Australia	1st	400 m
1997	IAAF World Championships	Athens, Greece	1st	400 m
1998	Australian Championships	Melbourne, Australia	1st	400 m
1999	Australian Championships	Melbourne, Australia	1st	400 m
1999	IAAF World Championships	Sevilla, Spain	1st	400 m
1999	IAAF World Championships	Sevilla, Spain	6th	4x100 m Relay
1999	IAAF World Indoor Championships	Maebashi, Japan	2nd	400 m
2000	2000 Summer Olympics	Sydney, Australia	1st	400 m
2000	2000 Summer Olympics	Sydney, Australia	7th	200 m
2000	2000 Summer Olympics	Sydney, Australia	5th	4x400 m Relay
2000	Australian Championships	Sydney, Australia	1st	200 m
2000	Australian Championships	Sydney, Australia	1st	400 m
2000	Golden League 2000 - Exxon Mobil Bislett Games	Oslo, Norway	1st	400 m
2000	Golden League 2000 - Herculis Zepter	Monaco	1st	400 m
2000	Golden League 2000 - Meeting Gaz de France de Paris	Paris, France	1st	200 m
2000	Golden League 2000 - Memorial Van Damme	Brussels, Belgium	1st	400 m
2000	Grand Prix 2000 - Athletissima 2000	Lausanne, Switzerland	1st	400 m
2000	Grand Prix 2000 - CGU Classic	Gateshead, Great Britain	1st	200 m
2000	Grand Prix 2000 - Melbourne Track Classic	Melbourne, Australia	1st	400 m
2000	Grand Prix 2000 - Tsi klitiria Meeting	Athens, Greece	1st	400 m
2002	Commonwealth Games	Manchester, Great Britain	1st	4x400 m Relay
2003	Australian Championships	Brisbane, Australia	1st	400 m

[edit] References

1. ^ Bideau's methods are make or break - by Raelene Boyle - publisher: SMH (22 March 2006)

[edit] External links

• Official Website

Olympic champions in women's 400 m
1964: Betty Cuthbert | 1968: Colette Besson | 1972: Monika Zehrt | 1976: Irena Szewińska | 1980: Marita Koch | 1984: Valerie Brisco-Hooks | 1988: Olga Bryzgina | 1992 Marie-José Perec | 1996: Marie-José Perec | 2000: Cathy Freeman | 2004: Tonique Williams-Darling

Preceded by Dr. Peter Doherty

Australian of the Year 1998

Succeeded by Mark Taylor