Cathy Freeman

Ian Thorpe at number eight, five Olympic gold medals.

And he basically carried, along with Cathy Freeman, but he won five gold medals and he carried those Sydney Olympics on his back with Cathy, like those two.

And he was a young athlete at the time.

Is

We've got a

break.

Dawn Fraser, Yvonne Culligan, Koshia Zhu, Kadel Evan, Wally Lewis, Andrew Johns, Cathy Freeman, Lee Matthews, Jack Brabham, Ali Day, and Steph Gilmore.

Who would I

But having said that, that journey leading into those games was just...

I couldn't have asked for a better preparation and a better training partner than Cathy Freeman.

She's a phenomenal individual to be around.

I learned so much from her and her coach and her support network, from her physio right through to her family I had the opportunity to meet.

And camo for context.

Other people that have an Order of Australian Medal are Olivia Newton-John, Ian Thorpe, Cathy Freeman, et cetera.

Marty Haynes.

And Fred Brophy.

Uh, Ian Thorpe at number eight, five Olympic gold medals.

And he basically carried along with Cathy Freeman, but he won five gold medals and he carried those Sydney Olympics on his back with Cathy, like those two.

And he was a young athlete at the time.

Is

We've got a

break.

Dawn Fraser, Yvonne Culligan, Koshia Zhu, Kadel Evan, Wally Lewis, Andrew Johns, Cathy Freeman, Lee Matthews, Jack Brabham, Ali Day, and Steph Gilmore.

Who would I work with? He's got three lists.

Now, everyone in the narrative is, oh, and it's like, hang on

a second – I actually hate that these cunts are dropping Don Bradman and Cathy Freeman like they've come up with something themselves.

Like...

I hate both athletes.

I'll say it again.

I'll say this again.

I respect Cathy Freeman.

She had one race.

So that was a fascinating process.

That Cathy Freeman is one of the most iconic probably sites ever in Olympic history.

Yeah, yeah, you know, they have these sort of, you know, what's Australia's greatest sporting moment, and it's always number one,

you know.

Promotional, you know, the pressure on her was incredible.

And then if, you know, if there wasn't enough pressure already, let's get her to light the flame at the opening ceremony.

You know, just in case there was someone in Australia who didn't know Cathy Freeman.

so the pressure on her was just remarkable you know and and i don't think there's been i'm a bit of a student of olympic history and i don't think there's been a a person in olympic history with as much pressure on on her uh as she was you know the whole country you know the whole thing it was all freeman night at the athletics everyone was having barbecues around the country on freeman night you know it was just massive you couldn't get a ticket for that night you could not get a ticket and um So she won and crossed the line.

The Sydney Olympics were on.

And I'd watched Cathy Freeman win.

You know, it was amazing, Sydney Olympics.

And then I saw these women rowing, and I'd never seen rowing before in my life.

It'll be

21 years into NRLW and AFLW and it'll be – we will have held the Brisbane Olympics, which is, you know, six-ish years away, and we will have needed to learn from legacies that have not yet – manifest in other Olympic nations sorry host cities and reckoned with that because it's a myth that you know Olympics don't inspire people to be active and inspire people to be better there's a very quick bump up and then usually things go back down again so we as people in the sporting sector in australia have a huge responsibility to not waste this green and gold runway that we're calling it and to hold on to the inspiration the participation the um sense of pride national pride that olympics will bring us and a paralympics um and also to cultivate our greatest sportsmen and women in this country

yeah I remember, I still remember very vividly 2000 and I was, you know, I think I was just about to finish school and Cathy Freeman winning the 400 is still one of my favourite memories, not sport, memories in life.

I know.