Freeman ready to revisit
Cathy Freeman is no longer running away. The Sydney 2000 Olympic champion never fell out of love with her sport but she needed a prolonged separation, which required a lot of time and space. Today Australia’s golden girl takes a significant step in her return, becoming the sixth official ambassador for next year’s Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. Freeman, 44, admits it took her years to recover from the enormity of her achievement at the Sydney Games.
CATHY Freeman is no longer running away.
The Sydney 2000 Olympic champion never fell out of love with her sport but she needed a prolonged separation which required a lot of time and space.
Today Australia’s golden girl takes a significant step in her return, becoming the sixth official ambassador for next year’s Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
“This ambassadorship is lovely, it’s lovely that I can get connected with people again,” Freeman said. “Just the memory of Sydney and the sentiment around it, I hope people revisit it and carry it over into the Gold Coast next year.”
Freeman, 44, admits it took her years to recover from the enormity of her achievement at the Sydney Games and she is only now feeling able to reconnect with track and field.
“I realise I have to stop running away from the life I had, the life of an athlete,” she explains.
“I don’t think I ever stopped being in love with it, I think I just needed a break from that whole pressurised situation.
“There is a part of your development (as a person) that needs to be, not neglected, but put aside for a bit
“When you’re an elite athlete it’s not a normal life. You are sort of just an athlete, full time, even in your sleep.”
She was “still recovering” when Melbourne hosted the GOOD AS GOLD: Former track and field athlete Cathy Freeman is set to be the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games ambassador. Commonwealth Games in 2006 where she recalls presenting a medal but emotionally she wasn’t there.
“I still wanted to get away from it all,” she says. It’s a completely different outlook now for Freeman – a mother to fiveyear-old Rubie – who has been slowly making inroads back into track and field in recent times, including acting as a mentor to national 400m champion Morgan Mitchell.