How Cathy Freeman became a national sports legend

Born in 1973, Cathy Freeman became an Australian sports legend and most famously represented the country during the 2000 Sydney Olympics. She is a former sprinter who specialised in the 400 metres dash event at the Olympics. She did sometimes compete in other types of track events, but her main focus was the 400-metre dash events. Her personal record before retirement has her ranked as the 8^th fastest woman of all time. She lit the Olympic Flame at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the same event where she was crowned champion of the women’s 400-metre dash.

As an indigenous Australian, Freeman became a national legend as she was the first Aboriginal person to be a gold medallist that the Commonwealth games at the young age of 16. She also won gold in both the 400m and the 200m race at the Canadian Commonwealth Games. She won silver in the 1996 Olympics as well.

Freeman made a lot of progress in her running the season of 1996, and she set a number of personal best records and records in Australia. Some of her records are the fastest ever in the world for women.

She won the 400m in 1997 at the Athens World Championship. The only loss that she had in the 1997 seasons was when she injured her foot running in Oslo. Due to the injury, she did not compete in the 1998 running seasons. She did not lose any races in the 400m category in 1999.

She famously did her victory lap at the 2000 Olympics carrying both the Australian and Aboriginal flags. This was in spite of the fact that unofficial flags were banned from the Olympics, and the Aboriginal flag was not considered a national flag. She retired in 2003 and started the Cathy Freeman foundation in 2007.