Cathy Freeman
Cathy Freeman
Catherine Astrid Salome "Cathy" Freeman, OAMis an Australian former sprinter, who specialised in the 400 metres event. She would occasionally compete in other track events but 400m was her main event. Her personal best of 48.63 currently ranks her as the sixth fastest woman of all time, set while finishing second to Marie-Jose Perec's number three time at the 1996 Olympics. She became the Olympic champion for the women's 400 metres at the 2000 Summer Olympics, at which she lit the...
NationalityAustralian
ProfessionRunner
Date of Birth16 February 1973
CountryAustralia
I decided that I was going to go to the Olympics to see if I had made the right decision to retire because I knew that if I'd made the mistake of retiring I would know during and after those Games in Athens.
I don't have a lot of regrets in my life.
Between 1991 and 1997 I had really serious asthma.
I made publicity contracts with Nike, several broadcasting companies and airline companies within Australia.
I'll just let time happen. I don't have to articulate what may be or what may not be. I don't even do that to myself.
This occasion is personally very meaningful and I hope to visit Korea again if I have the chance.
I took only twice a time-out, once, when I was hurt, and a second time, when I much felt I was exhausted out of personal reasons.
When I'm in a bad mood, I don't listen.
I'm doing something now where I'm going to have to learn so much and that takes time nurturing, those kinds of relationships.
The last sort of really low-key race I ran, I realized with about a hundred metres to go, that my heart just wasn't in it. I wasn't trying my hardest, I didn't care to compete against the girls I was up against. That spoke a lot about where my heart was taking me-which was off the track.
I was always surrounded by expectation from the very first race I ran as a 5-year-old.
Asthma is treatable and well can be controlled.
When I was 18 years old, about to develop my sportsman career, the asthma complaints became already some years before.
My last real race was at the Olympics in Sydney in 2000.