To mark 100 days from the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Nine.com.au asked you what your favourite Olympic memories were in a survey. The response was overwhelming! We chose 50 of them to re-live, one a day, before new memories are made in Paris. Scroll on for today’s memory.
It’s a moment widely regarded as the greatest in Australian sporting history — above the John Aloisi penalty goal that catapulted the Socceroos into the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Ian Thorpe mowing down Gary Hall junior to clinch relay gold at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and Steven Bradbury’s staggering come-from-behind win at the Salt Lake City 2002 Olympics.
Ten days after lighting the Olympic cauldron at the Sydney 2000 Games, Cathy Freeman lined up for the 400m carrying the hopes of a nation.
Twenty-seven at the time, the speedster from Mackay in Queensland’s north was the hot favourite to win gold in the one-lap sprint. She had triumphed at the 1994 Commonwealth Games, had taken victory at the world championships in 1997 and 1999, and was at the peak of her athletic prowess.
Watch the video at the top of the page to see Cathy Freeman win gold in the 400m at the Sydney 2000 Olympics!
At the Atlanta Olympics four years earlier, she had won silver in a race taken out by Frenchwoman Marie-Jose Perec, who withdrew from the Sydney Olympics in the days leading up to the race as the pressure of facing a home-town superstar became too much to bear.
After crossing the finish line first in each of her preliminary rounds, Freeman took her place in lane six for the final, spurred on by a 112,000-strong crowd at Sydney Olympic Park Athletic Centre.
She was decked out in her full-body Nike “Swift Suit”; a hooded outfit green, gold and silver in colour designed to reduce aerodynamic drag. The suit is synonymous with the win itself.
Freeman, Jamaica’s Lorraine Fenton and Great Britain’s Katharine Merry could hardly be split as they rolled off the second bend and attacked the home straight.
Then Freeman exploded.
Tearing down the straight with her long, natural, beautiful stride and pumping arm action, the Indigenous champion powered to victory by three metres.
She stopped the clock at 49.11 seconds.
Her immediate reaction was not one of elation — she would reveal relief was the overwhelming emotion — but her unbridled joy spilled out as she set off on a victory lap and stood on the top step of the podium.
Freeman carried the Australian flag and the Aboriginal flag as she paraded around the track, soaking up a thunderous atmosphere.