Back Cathy Freeman Afrikaans كاثي فريمان Arabic كاثى فريمان ARZ Cathy Freeman AST Keti Friman Azerbaijani Кати Фрийман Bulgarian ক্যাথি ফ্রিম্যান Bengali/Bangla Catherine Astrid Salome Freeman Catalan Cathy Freemanová Czech Cathy Freeman German

Cathy Freeman

"Catherine Freeman" redirects here. For the British television producer, see Catherine Freeman (television producer).
For the fictional character, see Kathy Freeman.

Cathy Freeman
OAM
Freeman in 2008
Personal information
Full nameCatherine Astrid Salome Freeman
Born (1973-02-16) 16 February 1973 (age 51)
Mackay, Queensland, Australia
EducationKooralbyn International school
Fairholme College
Alma materUniversity of Melbourne
OccupationAustralian sprinter/runner
Height164 cm (5 ft 5 in)
Weight56 kg (8 st 11 lb; 123 lb)[1]
Spouse
Sandy Bodecker
​
​
(m. 1999; div. 2003)​
James Murch
​
​
(m. 2009; sep. 2024)​
Sport
CountryAustralia
SportSprint
University teamUniversity of Melbourne
Coached byStep-father Bruce Barber, Mike Danila, Peter Fortune
Retired1 July 2003
Medal record
Women's athletics
Representing  Australia
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2000 Sydney 400 m
Silver medal – second place 1996 Atlanta 400 m
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 1997 Athens 400 m
Gold medal – first place 1999 Seville 400 m
Bronze medal – third place 1995 Gothenburg 4 × 400 m relay
Commonwealth Games
Gold medal – first place 1990 Auckland 4 × 100 m
Gold medal – first place 1994 Victoria 200 m
Gold medal – first place 1994 Victoria 400 m
Gold medal – first place 2002 Manchester 4 × 400 m
Silver medal – second place 1994 Victoria 4 × 100 m

Catherine Astrid Salome Freeman OAM (born 16 February 1973) is an Aboriginal Australian former sprinter, who specialised in the 400 metres event.[2] Her personal best of 48.63 seconds currently ranks her as the ninth-fastest woman of all time, set while finishing second to Marie-José Pérec's number-four time at the 1996 Olympics.[3] She became the Olympic champion for the women's 400 metres at the 2000 Summer Olympics, at which she had lit the Olympic Flame.[4]

Freeman was the first Indigenous Australian person to become a Commonwealth Games gold medalist at age 16 in 1990.[5] The year 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 at the 1996 Olympics and came first at the 1997 World Championships in the 400 m event. In 1998, Freeman took a break from running due to injury. She returned from injury in form with a first-place finish in the 400 m at the 1999 World Championships. She announced her retirement from athletics in 2003.

In 2007, she founded the Cathy Freeman Foundation, which changed names twice (to Community Spirit Foundation[6] and later to Murrup[7]). She is of the Kuku-yalanji and Birri-gubba peoples.[8]

  1. ^ "Cathy Freeman". sports-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 4 December 2008. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  2. ^ "Cathy Freeman: Running for her people". World Athletics. 8 July 2021. Archived from the original on 8 July 2021. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
  3. ^ "Senior Outdoor 400 Metres Women". World Athletics. Archived from the original on 12 November 2019. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
  4. ^ TorchRelay – Photos: Cathy Freeman lights the Olympic Flame Archived 13 November 2008 at the Wayback Machine. The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad.
  5. ^ John Ashdown (11 January 2012). "50 stunning Olympic moments No9: Cathy Freeman wins gold for Australia". The Guardian.
  6. ^ "Our Story". Community Spirit Foundation. Archived from the original on 25 March 2023. Retrieved 26 May 2023.
  7. ^ "Murrup | Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation I home". Murrup. Retrieved 25 July 2024.
  8. ^ Australian Overseas Information Service (1993). "Olympic athlete Cathy Freeman". National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 6 October 2024.

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