Olympic Track & Field Codexery

Cathy Freeman

Australian sprinter, Olympic champion, and Indigenous trailblazer.

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She belongs to the Kuku-yalanji and Birri-gubba peoples, and at age 16 in 1990 she was the first female Indigenous Australian to earn a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games.[1][2]

Key facts and history

Freeman was born into a family of Indigenous Australian, Chinese and Syrian descent, and her father Norman was a well-known rugby league player nicknamed "Twinkle Toes"[3] At the 1996 Olympics, she won the silver medal behind Marie-José Pérec in an Australian record of 48.63 seconds, which was the fourth-fastest time since the world record was set in 1985.[4][5] In 1987, she started professional coaching under Romanian Mike Danila at Kooralbyn International School, and after 1987 she also trained with her stepfather Bruce Barber.[6] She took a break from competition in 1998 because of an injury, then came back in 1999 and was undefeated in every 400 metres race that year, including at the World Championships.[7]

At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, the anticipated race against Pérec never occurred because Pérec departed the Games after reporting that strangers had harassed her.[8][9] Freeman secured the gold medal with a time of 49.11 seconds, making her just the second Australian Aboriginal Olympic champion, following Nova Peris-Kneebone.[9][10]

What the cited sources add

The Australian Women's Register records that Nova Peris was the first Aboriginal Australian to win an Olympic gold medal, preceding Freeman's achievement.[10] The SBS program "Who Do You Think You Are?" revealed that Freeman's mother was of Chinese and English heritage as well as Aboriginal, and that her paternal great-grandfather Frank Fisher served in the 11th Light Horse Regiment during World War I due to a 1917 Queensland policy.[11]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Cathy Freeman" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: John Ashdown, "50 stunning Olympic moments No9: Cathy Freeman wins gold for Australia", The Guardian, 11 January 2012 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Cathy Freeman" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Australian Overseas Information Service, "Olympic athlete Cathy Freeman", National Archives of Australia, 1993 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Cathy Freeman" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Athletics - Cathy Freeman", Olympics.com, 25 September 2000; "From the Archives, 1990: "Barefoot ratbag" races to golden future", Sydney Morning Herald, 9 April 2020; "Celebrating 50 Years Of The Remarkable Cathy Freeman", Marie Claire, 9 March 2023; "Jessica Mauboy on her career, the Paris Olympics and the moment she found out she's related to Cathy Freeman", abc.net.au, 20 July 2024; "Cathy Freeman Bio", EBSCO; "Cathy Freeman", aiatsis.gov.au, 3 June 2015; "Golden Dawn for Cathy Freeman", World Athletics, 9 January 1998 (original not r en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Cathy Freeman" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Top 10 Greatest Olympic Moments of All-Time", 21 July 2021 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Cathy Freeman" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Senior Outdoor 400 Metres Women", World Athletics; "Senior Outdoor 400 Metres Women", World Athletics (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Cathy Freeman" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Cathy Freeman, Athlete"; Cathy Freeman: The athletic proud of Australia; Sebastian Coe, "Athletics: Making of a legend", The Daily Telegraph, 14 January 2001; Eamonn Condon, "Freeman, still on the top of the world", The Electronic Telegraph, 27 May 2001; "Cathy Freeman, Athlete" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Cathy Freeman" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Cathy FREEMAN – Australia – Defends World Championship 400m crown in Seville", sporting-heroes.net (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. "Perec out of Olympics", BBC Sport, 22 September 2000. facts only, no text reused. news.bbc.co.uk
  9. Wikipedia, "Cathy Freeman" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Perec out of Olympics", BBC Sport, 22 September 2000; "SYDNEY 2000; Perec Says Fear Overwhelmed Her", The New York Times, 29 September 2000; Melbourne, "Peris, Nova Maree – Woman – The Australian Women's Register", womenaustralia.info (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Melbourne, "Peris, Nova Maree – Woman – The Australian Women's Register", womenaustralia.info. facts only, no text reused. womenaustralia.info
  11. Wikipedia, "Cathy Freeman" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Catherine Freeman Who Do You Think You Are?. SBS One.; Cathy's family secrets – publisher: The Daily Telegraph (13 January 2008) (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Cathy Freeman (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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