... ...... Catherine Astrid Salome "Cathy" Freeman, OAM (born 16 February 1973) is a former Australian sprinter, who specialised in the 400 metres event. She became the Olympic champion for the women's 400 metres at the 2000 Summer Olympics, at which she lit the Olympic Flame.[1] Freeman was the first ever Aboriginal Commonwealth Games gold medalist at age 16 in 1990. [2] 1994 was her breakthrough season. At the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Canada, Freeman won gold in both the 200 m and 400 m. She also won the silver medal in the 1996 Olympics and came first at the 1997 World Champion in the 400 m event. 1998 saw Freeman taking a break from running due to injury. She returned to form with a first place in the 400 m at the 1999 World Championships. She announced her retirement from athletics in 2003. Freeman was born in Slade Point, Mackay, Queensland, where the local athletics track is now named after her. Her coach throughout her athletic career was Peter Fortune. In 1999, she married Sandy Bodecker, separating in February 2003. In 2009, she married James Murch, with whom she gave birth to a girl in 2011. In 1998, she was awarded Australian of the Year, in 2001 the World Sportswoman of the Year and the Medal of the Order of Australia. Freeman began athletics at a very young age. Her first coach was her stepfather, Bruce Barber. By her early teens she had a collection of regional and national titles, having competed in the 100 metres, 200 metres and high jump.[citation needed] In 1987, Freeman moved on to Kooralbyn International School to be coached professionally by Romanian Mike Danila, who become her first real coach and later a key influence throughout her career; he provided a strict training regime for the young athlete.[3][4][5] In 1988, She was awarded a scholarship to an exclusive girls' school, Fairholme College in Toowoomba. In a competition in 1989, Freeman ran 11.67s in the 100 metres and Danila began to think about entering her in the Commonwealth Games Trials in Sydney. In 1990, Freeman was chosen as a member of Australia's 4 x 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 medallist, as well as one of the youngest, at 16 years old. She moved to Melbourne in 1990s after the Auckland Commonwealth Games. Shortly after moving to Melbourne, Bideau her manager introduced Freeman to athletics coach, Peter Fortune who would become Freeman's coach for the rest of her career. She was then selected to represent Australia at the 1990 World Junior Championships in Athletics in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. There, she reached the semi-finals of the 100 m and placed fifth in the final of the 400 m. Freeman competed in her second World Junior Championships in Seoul, South Korea. She competed only in the 200 m, winning the silver medal behind China's Hu Ling. Also in 1992, she travelled to her first Olympic Games, reaching the second round of her new speciality event; the 400 metres. At the 1993 World Championships in Athletics, Freeman competed in the 200 m, reaching the semi-finals. 1994 was Freeman's breakthrough season, when she entered into the world's elite for the first time. Competing at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Canada, Freeman won gold in both the 200 m and 400 m. She also competed as a member of Australia's 4x100 m squad, winning the silver medal and as a member of the 4x400 m team, who finished first but were later disqualified. During the 1994 season, Freeman took 1.3 seconds from her 400 m personal best, achieving 50.04 seconds. She also set all-time personal bests in the 100 m (11.24) and 200 m (22.25). Although a medal favourite at the 1995 World Championships in Athletics in Sweden, Freeman finished fourth.[citation needed] She also reached the semi-finals of the 200 m. Freeman made more progress during the 1996 season, setting many personal bests and Australian records. By this stage, she was the biggest challenger to France's Marie-José Pérec at the 1996 Olympics.[citation needed] She eventually took the silver medal behind Pérec, in an Australian record of 48.63 seconds. This is still the sixth fastest time ever and the second fastest since 1985.[citation needed] Pérec's winning time of 48.25 was an Olympic record and the third fastest ever. In 1997, Freeman won the 400 m at the World Championships in Athens, with a time of 49.77 seconds. Her only loss in the 400 m that season was in Oslo where she injured her foot.[citation needed] Freeman took a break for the 1998 season, due to injury. Upon her return to the track in 1999, Freeman did not lose a single 400 m race, including at the World Championships.[citation needed] ABC Sydney Olympics Freeman.ogv ABC footage and interviews of crowds celebrating Freeman's Olympics win. Her winning streak continued into the 2000 season, despite Pérec's return to the track. Freeman was the home favorite for the 400 m title at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, where she was expected to face-off with rival Pérec. This showdown never happened, as Pérec left the Games after what she describes as harassment from strangers.[6] Freeman won the Olympic title in a time of 49.13 seconds, becoming only the second Australian Aboriginal Olympic champion (the first was Nova Peris-Kneebone for field hockey in Atlanta).[citation needed] After the race, Freeman took a victory lap, carrying both the Aboriginal and Australian flags. This was despite the fact that unofficial flags are banned at the Olympic Games and the Aboriginal flag, while recognized as official in Australia, is not a national flag, nor recognized by the International Olympic Committee.[citation needed] Freeman also made the final of the 200 m, coming sixth.[7] In honour of her gold medal win in Sydney, she represented Oceania in carrying the Olympic flag at the opening ceremonies of the next Olympics, in Salt Lake City, joining Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Africa), John Glenn (The Americas), Kazuyoshi Funaki (Asia), Lech Wałęsa (Europe), Jean-Michel Cousteau (Environment), Jean-Claude Killy (Sport), and Steven Spielberg (Culture).[citation needed] Throughout her career, Freeman regularly competed in the Victorian Athletic League where she won two 400 m races at the Stawell Gift Carnival.[citation needed] Freeman did not compete during the 2001 season. In 2002, she returned to the track to compete as a member of Australia's victorious 4x400 m relay team at the 2002 Commonwealth Games.[citation needed] Freeman announced her retirement in 2003.[8] Since retiring from athletics Freeman has become involved in a range of community and charitable activities. She is an Ambassador of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation.[9] Freeman was appointed as an Ambassador for Cottage by the Sea, alongisde celebrity chef Curtis Stone and big wave surfer Jeff Rowley. Cottage by the Sea is one of Australia's oldest charities and each year provides short-term beachside holidays and respite care for more than 900 children and families in need.[10] Personal life Freeman was born in 1973 at Slade Point, Mackay, Queensland to Norman Freeman and Cecelia. She and her brothers Gavin, Garth and Norman (who died after a motor vehicle accident on 16 September 2008) [11] were raised there and in other parts of Queensland. She also had a sister named Anne-Marie (1966–1990) who suffered from cerebral palsy and spent much of her life in a home for the disabled. Freeman attended several schools, but was mostly educated at Fairholme College, in Toowoomba.[citation needed] Her parents divorced in 1978.[12] Freeman has described how she has been influenced by early experiences with racism and also by her Bahá'í faith.[13] Freeman was raised a Baha'i, and says of her faith, "I'm not a devout Baha'i but I like the prayers and I appreciate their values about the equality of all human kind".[14][15] Freeman's mother Cecelia (nee Sibley) was born in the Aboriginal community on Palm Island. Freeman's father Norman's father was Frank Fisher; Norman was raised by his mother Geraldine Roy and his stepfather Claude Freeman [12]. Freeman's late grandfather, Frank Fisher was an outstanding rugby player.[16] Freeman had a long-term romantic relationship with Nic Bideau, her manager, that ended in acrimony and legal wranglings over Freeman's endorsement earnings.[17] [18] Freeman married Sandy Bodecker, a Nike executive and 20 years her senior, in 1999. After her success in Sydney she took an extended break from the track to nurse Bodecker through a bout of throat cancer between May–October 2002.[19] She announced their separation in February 2003. Later that year, Freeman began dating Australian actor Joel Edgerton whom she had initially met at the 2002 TV Week Logies. Their relationship ended in early 2005.[20] In October 2006 Freeman announced her engagement to Melbourne stockbroker James Murch.[21] They married at Spray Farm on the Bellarine Peninsula on 11 April 2009.[22] Freeman gave birth to Ruby Anne Susie Murch on 8 July 2011.[23] In 2008, Freeman participated in Who Do You Think You Are? and discovered that her mother was of Chinese and English heritage. As a result of a 1917 Queensland policy that Aborigines could serve in the military if they had a European parent, her paternal great grandfather, Frank Fisher served in the 11th Light Horse Regiment during WWI.[24][12] On her right arm, the side closest to the spectators on an athletics track, she had the words "Cos I'm Free" tattoed mid-way between her shoulder and elbow.[25] English textbook The story of Freeman and her accomplishments in the Olympics were used in an English book known as Sunshine in Japan. The book was used by Japanese junior high schools in their third year. It told of her winning the gold medal at the 2000 Olympics. It then goes on to talk about Australia's Aborigines and then about her personal life. Her story is used as a means to teach relative pronouns to the students.