Sports People in Profile; Cathy Freeman
Written by; Tao MacLeod
A world class track and field star Cathy Freeman won top grade medals in a 17 year career that saw her become one of the iconic athletes of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. She specialised in the 400 metre event, but also competed in the 100 metre, 200 metre and relay races. Freeman appeared at the Commonwealth Games, the Olympics and the World Championships all on more than one occasions, consistently finding success. However, she had to overcome racism and family tragedy along the way. This sports profile will take a look at the life and times of a remarkable human being…
Catherine Astrid Salome Freeman was born in the eastern coastal region of Australia, Queensland, in February of 1973. She is of Indigenous Australian, Chinese and Syrian descent. There was an element of a sporting background within her family as her father, Norman Freeman was a well known local level rugby league player, nicknamed “Twinkle Toes”, due to his speed. However, Norman and Cecelia Barber (her mother) divorced in 1978. Freeman has three brothers, who she grew up with. Cathy also had an older sister, Ann-Marie, born in 1966, who had the movement disorder cerebral palsy and unfortunately died in 1990.
Cathy Freeman would have grown up facing racism, due to her ethnic background. The Indigenous Australians have faced prejudices from settlers since the British colonisation of the country in January 1788. There was earlier contact with those from overseas as well. The first documented Europeans on the Australian continent was when the Dutch East India Company ship Duyfken, captained by Willem Janszoon, landed in 1606. Disease brought from Europe, as well as frontier conflicts significantly reduced the indigenous populations in the early days. The Australian Colonial Governments latterly looked to force the assimilation of the indigenous peoples into the European-Australian society. From 1869 it was federal and state government policy to forcibly remove Aboriginal children from their families and communities. This, backed by church missionaries, went on until the 1970s and was justified on the grounds of child protection. Those who were taken became known as the Stolen Generations. These abductions created generational trauma for those involved, with incidences of poor mental health, including depression and PTSD seen within the extended families of those wrenched from their homes. One of these children was the maternal grandmother of Cathy Freeman.
At a young age Freeman found that she showed a talent for athletics. Her first international achievements came at the Commonwealth Games. Picked for the 4 x 100 metre relay team in 1990, she travelled with the Aussie team to neighbouring country New Zealand, as Auckland hosted the multi-sports festival. The Australians took the gold medal in the event. This meant that not only was Freeman the first ever Aboriginal athlete to win a gold medal at the ‘Commies’, but at 16 she was also the youngest. She added further bling bling at ‘the Friendly Games’ including a silver in the 4 x 100 metre relay at Victoria, Canada in 1994, golds in the 200 and 400 metre races, as well as another in Manchester 2002 in the 4 x 400 metre relay. At the World Championships Cathy won a bronze medal in the 4 x 400 metre relay in Gothenburg 1995, as well as gold in the 400 metres in Athens 1997 and Seville 1999.
However, it was at the Olympic Games that Freeman caught the public imagination. Having made her Olympiad debut in Atlanta in 1996, she took the silver medal in the 400 metre race, coming in behind France’s Marie-José Pérec. As one of the foremost runners in the world, a victory at the Summer Olympics was the only success that had thus far eluded her. Four years later she was selected to represent the national athletics team again. The Sydney Games in 2000 was a festival of sport in her home country, as well as a celebration of the sporting culture of an avidly active nation. The awarding of the Olympics to an Aussie city for only the second time was something that would have excited many fans across Australia. Cathy’s previous successes had marked her out as a world class athlete and she was chosen to light the torch the opening ceremony. On the track she used a special type of sports apparel called the Swift Suit, designed by Nike. This was a skin tight body suit that was made up of different fabrics and was advertised to be more aerodynamic than what runners have traditionally worn. In an era that saw an increase in media attention on sport compared to previous generations, the imagery of her speeding away from her opponents this hooded piece of kit only added to her superstar quality.
Cathy Freeman went onto win the 400 metre race, in a time of 49,11 seconds. In doing so she became only the second ever Australian Aboriginal Olympic champion. After the race she took a lap of honour with two flags. One being that of Australia, the other was the black, red and yellow of the Aboriginal peoples. In winning the gold medal at a home Games Freeman had come to represent not only Australia on the global stage, but also specifically the first nation communities of the Great Southern Land. This success meant more than just winning a race. It was a huge step forward in relations between mainstream Australian culture and those, including her grandmother, who have been subjected to decades of racism and repugnant state intervention. In the moment of her crossing the line in first place Cathy became an Aussie sporting icon.
In terms of personal accolades, Freeman was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2001 and was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2005. In 2007, four years after her retirement, the Cathy Freeman Foundation was set up. This organisation looks to increase educational opportunities to First Nations children. There are still ongoing issues for Aboriginals in Australia, but Cathy is able to use her position and status in order to help others.
