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Top 10 Amazing Facts about Cathy Freeman

Cathy Freeman is an Australian athlete. She was the first Aboriginal person to win an individual gold medal at the Olympic Games.

With her talent, she was able to bring new attention to Aboriginal peoples and the inferior conditions they live in within Australia.

Catherine Astrid Salome Freeman was born on February 16, 1973, in Mackay, Queensland, Australia. Her mother was of the Kuku Yalanji people of far north Queensland, and her father was from the Burri Gubba people of central Queensland.

Freeman discovered her love of track and field after her first race when she was eight years old.

Initially, her stepfather coached her, but she was soon offered scholarships to attend schools where she worked with experienced coaches. Freeman focused mostly on running the 200-meter and 400-meter races.

Cathy Freeman is Australia’s greatest ever sportsperson. An Australian household name.

Cathy was the leader of athletics in Australia during the 1990s and at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, inspiring thousands of Australians to pursue the sport.

Learn 10 more amazing facts about Cathy Freeman

 

 

1. Cathy Freeman was the first Aboriginal sprinter to win a Gold Medal at the Commonwealth Games

 

was a member of Australia’s 4 × 100 m relay team for the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, New Zealand.

The team won the gold medal, making Freeman the first-ever Aboriginal Commonwealth Games gold medalist, as well as one of the youngest, at 16 years old.

 She was named Young Australian of the Year for winning the gold medal at the 1990 Commonwealth Games

The Commonwealth Games often referred to as the Friendly Games, is an international multi-sport event involving athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations.

The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exception of 1942 and 1946, has taken place every four years since then.

2.  She was the First aboriginal to Compete in the Olympics

 

In 1992 she became the first Australian Aboriginal person to compete in the Olympics. Although she failed to win a medal at the Barcelona Games, Freeman’s profile continued to grow and she brought new attention to Aboriginal people, who had historically encountered discrimination

Cathy Freeman’s mother, Cecelia, of the Kuku Yalanji people, was born on Palm Island. Her father, Norman ‘Twinkletoes’ Freeman, of the Birra Gubba mob, was born at Woorabinda in Queensland.

Freeman was born in Mackay in 1973. Always proud of her ancestry, Freeman hoped her success as an athlete would be an inspiration to all Aboriginal children.

Cathy Freeman will go down in history as the first Australian Aboriginal to win an individual Olympic gold medal

3. Cathy Freeman had a Difficult Childhood

Freeman’s grandmother was part of the “stolen generation” of Aboriginal people in Australia.

Many Aboriginal children were taken from their parents to be raised in state-run institutions from the early 20th century until the 1970s, 

She was molested as a child. Both her younger sister and her father died. When Freeman was still a girl, her talent in running was obvious.

However, although she had the talent, she was also a member of a minority group that historically had not had access to the same resources that other athletes had. Freeman was one of only a few Aborigines who won a scholarship to a boarding school where she could learn and train.

4. Cathy Freeman’s Stepfather nurtured her Talent

When Freeman’s mother remarried, the family moved around, living in many towns. Freeman’s stepfather, Bruce Barber, noticed her athletic ability and encouraged her, training her from a young age.

Bruce Barber fostered the talent of his step-daughter. She won her first state primary school age group championship at the age of seven or eight.

Soon, Freeman was travelling interstate. She first came to Melbourne to represent Queensland at the Pacific School Games at the age of 10.

As well as her sprinting, she did hurdles and high jump. Even in her late teens, Freeman won the hurdles in the Australian Schools’ Championships, while her younger brother Norman won a sprint double.

5. Cathy Freeman Philanthropic Works

Since retirement in 2003, Cathy Freeman has devoted a lot of her time to projects benefiting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. She has worked in the media as well as appeared in television shows. 

From 2021 Students in the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community of Woorabinda will make great strides towards their future goals with a new 12-month ‘Sprint Passport Program’.

The Sprint Passport Program provides training and skills development for up to 80 local students. 10  received tailored personalised guidance, as part of the partnership which prioritises adolescents in remote communities.

She has been involved with a number of charities and community activities including Cottage by the Sea and the Cathy Freeman Foundation.

6. Cathy Freeman Bravely carried the Australian and Aboriginal FlagsBoth flags

During her 2000 Olympic Games victory lap in the 400-metre sprint, she carried both the Australian and Aboriginal flags — a symbol of reconciliation and pride in her Aboriginal cultural heritage.

In 1994, Commonwealth Games Cathy caused controversy by carrying the Aboriginal flag as well as the Australian national flag during her victory lap.  The aboriginal flag was not an official Australian flag.

When Cathy won the gold medal in the 400-metre sprint at the 2000 Olympic Games, this very same act was seen as a moment for the nation.

It symbolised the Australian people’s desire for reconciliation and pride in her Aboriginal cultural heritage.

7.  Cathy Freeman has won Many Awards

 

Throughout her athletic career, Cathy has received numerous awards including the Olympic Order for Sportswoman of the Year in 2001 and was named Australian of the Year in 1998.

Achievements

• Commonwealth Games Gold 1990
• 2 x 400m World Champion
• Gold medal in 400m 2000 Olympics
• Silver Medal in 400m in 1996 Olympics
• Three-time Olympian
• 2001 Awarded Laureus Sportswoman of the Year
• 2001 Awarded Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM)
• 2001 Recipient of ESPY Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award
• 2015 Recipient of the IOC Women and Sport Award (Oceania)
• 2016 Appointed as a Member of the IOC Sport and Active Society Commission
• 2018 Awarded the Australian Olympic Committee Order of Merit

8.  She was Honoured to Light the Olympic Couldron as a symbol of Reconciliation

 

On 15 September 2000 Aboriginal athlete Cathy Freeman lit the Olympic flame in the spectacular opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games.

After Olympic champion Herb Elliott carried the torch into the stadium, the last six torchbearers were famous Australian women Olympians.

Cathy Freeman was the final torchbearer and had the honour of lighting the Olympic cauldron.

She was young, female and Aboriginal, marking the organisers’ hopes that the Games would promote reconciliation in Australia.

9.      ….Cathy Freeman was the first international Olympic torch-bearer in 2004

Australian runner Cathy Freeman was the first international torch-bearer for the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, held in Athens from 13 to 29 August 2004. The torch was lit in Olympia, (Peloponnese) Greece, in spring 2004.

The way in which the Olympic torch is lit in Olympia, at the same place where the Ancient Games took place, is steeped in tradition. The sun’s rays and a parabolic mirror are used to ignite the Olympic flame.

After the lighting in Olympia, several runners carried the torch through Greece before it travelled by plane to Sydney. There, Cathy Freeman, who lit the Olympic cauldron at the 2000 Sydney Games, was the first international torch-bearer, followed by more than 10,000 runners on all the five continents

The torch and the Olympic flame are two of the greatest symbols of Olympism. The origin of the Olympic flame goes back to the Ancient Olympic Games, through the course of which a sacred flame burned continuously at the altar of Zeus

Now an integral part of Olympic tradition, the torch and relay appeared at the modern Olympic Games for the first time at the 1936 Games in Berlin.

10.  Cathy Freeman has Authored 13 Books

As a little girl, Cathy Freeman had only had one dream – to win a gold medal at the Olympics. At twenty-seven years old, that dream came true.

At the Sydney 2000 Games, she crossed the finish line, won a gold medal for Australia and became a national hero. How did she go from being a little girl who loved to run to inspiration to people around the world?

Born to Run is the most famous of her titles. Accompanied by beautiful illustrations by Charmaine Ledden-Lewis. Cathy tells her story about where self-belief, hard work and the power of a loving family can take you.

Others include, Baroque and Rococo, Cathy: Her Own Story, Run Fast and Eat Slow Diet Cookbook:  Recipes for Athlete; To Help Nourish and Maintain Optimal Performance and Cathy: My Autobiography

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Ten days after lighting the Olympic cauldron, in a packed stadium of over 112,000 people and wearing a now-legendary full-body suit she collected the ultimate prize.

Taking the lead 75 metres from home Cathy Freeman held off her challengers to win Olympic gold by four metres in 49.11 seconds, forever cementing her place in Australian sporting folklore.