The historical significance of Cathy Freeman’s gold at the

2000 Olympic Games and why it matters to Australia’s

indigenous and sporting history.

By Lily Johnson
769 words

1
‘It wasn’t just me who won the gold medal, it was all of us.’ -
(Cathy Freeman addressing her mob in Mackay)
When we think about an athlete winning an Olympic gold
medal, we may consider training, striving, hoping and
persevering. Few athletes have ever carried the heavy weight of
symbolism and expectation that Catherine Freeman did.
Catherine Astrid Salome Freeman is a proud Kuku Yalanji
woman who was born in Mackay, Queensland in 1973, to
Cecilia and Norman Freeman, both Aboriginal Australians. She
adored running. ‘To me running's like breathing. It's something
that comes really naturally and I'm good at it.’ - Cathy Freeman.
Despite her successes, Cathy was born into a family who had,
like all Indigenous families, experienced discrimination and
racism. In Queensland, prior to 1965, Freeman’s parents and
grandparents grew up without the rights of Australian citizens.
She was also the daughter and granddaughter of the Stolen
Generation. ‘My grandmother was taken away from her mother
because she had fair skin. I was so angry because they [the
government] were denying they had done anything wrong,
denying that a whole generation was stolen. I'll never know who
my grandfather was, I didn't know who my great grandmother
was, and that can never be replaced. All that pain, it's very
strong and generations have felt it.’ - Cathy Freeman.
Cathy frequently faced racial injustice, winning races as an 11-
year-old in 1984, but despite coming first, organisers of the
athletics competition refused to allow her a medal because she

2
was Indigenous. Instead, she was given a certificate of
participation.
In 1994, when she won two gold medals at the Commonwealth
Games in Canada, she carried both the Australian and
Aboriginal flags on her victory laps. She was contacted by
Arthur Tunstall, the Commonwealth Games Federation
president, who said that if she did it again, she’d be sent home.
That afternoon, Freeman told a journalist she’d do it again.
Australia’s own colonial history was characterised by
calamitous land dispossession, genocide and racism. From 1910
through to the 1960s, thousands of Aboriginal children were
forcibly removed from their parents and placed in missions,
homes and camps. One of the most ancient civilisations on the
planet over 60,000 years old, with over 500 different tribes with
250 different languages, different and distinctive cultures and
beliefs, were treated as simply one ‘primitive’ people to be
‘educated’ and erased.
During the period of 1990-2000 which spanned Cathy
Freeman’-s athletic career, Australia made remarkable progress
towards national reconciliation.

3
The pressure built on Freeman personally to boycott the Games,
but she resisted. ‘If you take running away from me, you take
away a huge part of my life. People say we should be protesting
for white people taking Indigenous lives away. Why turn around
and do the same to one of our own?’ – Cathy Freeman.
Adding to this pressure, Freeman also lit the cauldron with the
Olympic torch. ‘I thought awarding the honour to an Aboriginal
athlete would send a wonderful signal to the world.’ - John
Coates (Australian Olympic Committee.) This was significant
for the nation - a token of putting the past behind them and
reconciling Australia. But the pressure was still firmly on
Freeman to win gold…
‘Will people still love me if I lose?’ - Cathy Freeman.
On Monday 25 September, around 9:10pm, in a stadium of
112,524 people – the largest attendance in Olympic Games
history – Cathy Freeman flew past the finish line in the famous
green suit, her red, yellow and black shoes and lucky scrunchie
4
in 49.11 seconds. She never wanted to be a superstar, but the
significance of this race would leave a lasting legacy.
‘I have tried really hard each day, each year I get older I really
respect the way that people relate to that one race in September
2000. It is so intense, and it is so honest.’ – Cathy Freeman.
What matters and what is significant in Australia’s sporting and
Indigenous history is that no other athlete in Australia had ever
competed with such intensity and expectation. Not only to First
Nations people who looked up to Freeman but the history
preceding the race from the beginning of Freeman’s rise to her
winning the Olympic gold in the 400m. This was more than just
a race and a woman who won it. It reflects a moment in our
history where our identity was challenged. To win was
significant, not just to Cathy as an athlete, but as a historical
symbol representing a much larger struggle for equality for First
Nations people.
‘The whole story has become larger than who I am.’ - Cathy
Freeman

Appendix

5
 Timeline
(Not included in word count)

6
7
 References
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander School Curricula. Indigenous
Knowledge Institute. (n.d.).
https://indigenousknowledge.unimelb.edu.au/curriculum.
8
Aurora Internship Program. Welcome to the Aurora Internship
Program | the Aurora Internship Program. (n.d.).
http://www.auroraproject.com.au/.

Cathy Freeman Foundation: home. Cathy Freeman Fnd. (n.d.).

http://www.cathyfreemanfoundation.org.au/.

corporateName=National Museum of Australia; address=Lawson

Crescent, A. P. (2021, April 23). Indigenous Australians' right to
vote. National Museum of Australia.
http://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/indigen
ous-australians-right-to-vote.

FREE THE FLAG. Aboriginal ECC. (n.d.).

https://aboriginalecc.com/blogs/news/free-the-flag.

Freeman, C. (2007). Born to run: my story. Puffin Books.

Freeman, C., & Gullan, S. (2004). Cathy: my autobiography.

Highdown.

Home Page. Narragunnawali. (n.d.).

http://www.narragunnawali.org.au/.

Home. Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

Studies. (n.d.). http://www.aiatsis.gov.au/.

Indigenous Deaths in Custody: Report Summary. The Australian

Human Rights Commission. (n.d.).
http://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/indigenous-deaths-
custody-report-summary.

9
Institute, L. (n.d.). Home. Australia's National Institute for
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research.
http://www.lowitja.org.au/.

Native title, rights and interests. Native title, rights and interests |
PBC. (n.d.). https://nativetitle.org.au/learn/native-title-and-
pbcs/native-title-rights-and-interests.

No place for racism. The Australian Human Rights Commission.

(n.d.). http://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/no-place-
racism.

Paul Keating's 1992 Redfern Address. (n.d.).

https://antar.org.au/sites/default/files/paul-keating-speech-
transcript.pdf.

Reconciliation Australia. (2021, June 7). Home. Reconciliation

Australia. http://www.reconciliation.org.au/.

Richards, L. G., Schultz, B., Moore, P., Soon, T. T., Matus, L.,
Crawford, F., Engel, J., Graft, R., Schultz, B., Soon, T. T., Dean, P.
H., Fields, C., Jr., L. G., Myers, P., Ward, R., Williams, D. A.,
Moore, P., Engel, J., Graft, R., … Matus, L. (n.d.). Freeman.

Uluru Statement from the Heart. (n.d.).

http://www.ulurustatement.org/.

10