Cathy Freeman’s name will be emblazoned at the stadium where she completed one of Australia’s greatest sporting moments.
Twenty-three years to the day since the Indigenous athlete lit the Olympic flame at the Sydney 2000 opening ceremony, the NSW government on Friday announced a stand at the same venue would be named in her honour.
The eastern grandstand at Stadium Australia in Sydney Olympic Park will be named the Cathy Freeman Stand.
Ten days after she lit the flame at the stadium, Freeman returned to win gold in the women’s 400m final, famously completing a victory lap holding both the Australian and Aboriginal flags in front of a crowd of more than 110,000 supporters.
The announcement followed a public nomination process in which people put forward a female sporting hero whose name could be attached to the stand.
‘Barefoot kid’ to Olympic gold medal
An emotional Freeman on Friday said the young girl who grew up in country Queensland would never have seen this day coming.
Turning and looking at her grandstand, the Kuku Yalanji and Birri Gubba woman was almost lost for words seeing her family name displayed to the world.
“I’m seeing my father’s name up there as well, so this is not just about me,” Freeman said.
“This is about my family, the community I belong to, and of course the ancestral lines that go back so long and so deep and rich.”
Freeman’s gold medal win was the most-watched TV event in the country’s history before it was supplanted by the Matildas’ World Cup semi-final showdown with England at the same stadium last month.
“I was a barefoot kid running around, dreaming of big things and everything else beyond that Olympic gold medal,” Freeman said.
“Being able to honour my name, my story being honoured in this way, it’s just something I’m very proud of, to be in the hearts and minds of so many Australians.”
Premier Chris Minns said the naming was the perfect honour for an Australian legend.
“This is the first major grandstand to be named after a female athlete in NSW, but it won’t be the last,” he said.
“However, this is not an iconic female sporting achievement, it’s a defining Australian sporting triumph – man or woman – and it’s one for the ages.”
Freeman hopes spectators who cram into the grandstand can also inspire future Australian athletes as they did her in 2000.
“About 70m to go, it didn’t feel like my feet were even touching the ground, it was just so surreal,” she said of her gold-medal run.
“I felt like somebody had put a cloud under my feet or something, there was no exertion really.”
Australian Olympic Committee president Ian Chesterman praised the government’s gesture, adding that Freeman’s achievement shined a light on what young women could do when they pursued a dream.
