Her stepfather, Bruce Barber coached her until 1989 then she was awarded with a scholarship at Fairholme school but decided to move to Kooralbyn International school to be coached professionally by Mike Danila. After winning gold in the 4x100m relay at the Auckland Commonwealth Games Cathy moved to Melbourne where her life with running got serious. She was the first female Aboriginal to win gold at an international athletics event. Her achievements were as followed...
- Awarded Young Australian of the year. (1991)
- The Barcelona Olympics. Cathy became the first Aboriginal EVER to represent Australia in an Olympics.(1992)
- Commonwealth Games, Canada. Gold in 200m and 400m. (1994)-Olympic Games, USA. Silver medal. (1996)
- World Athletic Championships, Greece. Gold in 400m. (1997)
- Awarded Australian of the year. (1998)
- World Athletic Championships, Spain. Gold in 400m. (1999)
In 2000 Cathy Freeman was suddenly on the TV on homes around the globe. She was the first competing ever to be invited to light the Olympic flame at the Opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympic games. She then won the 400m by a mile which is one of the most recognised races in the world.
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yess Cathy freeman retired just after her sydney 200 win... she didn't go to Athens.
She did do a small ammount of commentaiting after but soon quit. she has now written a book and it doing some fundraiing with coles/safeway