Olympic 400m champion Cathy Freeman receives Australia’s highest honor

Cathy Freeman thrilled Australians when she won the 400m gold medal in the track and field event at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. She then walked the lap of honor carrying the Australian flag and another representing Australia’s indigenous people.

Cathy Freeman was awarded the country’s highest civilian honor on Australia Day today. She said the honor meant it was time for her to start taking things more seriously at the age of 53.

The athlete was made a Captain of the Order of Australia in recognition of her services to sport, her social impact across Australia and her role model for young people. She is one of 10 recipients of the honor, including five women.

As well as being one of Australia’s leading female athletes, Cathy Freeman is a long-time campaigner on issues affecting Australia’s indigenous people.

She is the first Indigenous Australian to win a Commonwealth Games gold medal when she was a member of the Australian 4x100m relay team at the age of 16 in 1990. She has four gold medals from the Commonwealth Games and the 400m World Championships in 1997 and 1999.

In 2007, she founded the Cathy Freeman Foundation, later renamed the Community Spirit Foundation, which supports the educational needs of Indigenous children in remote communities, the AP reported.

“I set out to be the best athlete I could be for myself, and suddenly this whole world opened up right before my eyes and it just keeps expanding, it’s been an amazing journey”, said Cathy Freeman in an interview. She added the honor meant she would have to “take things a little more seriously”. “This award is so formal, so serious. The responsibility that comes with it . . . it’s a serious honor. So, God, I have to be serious. I’m 53 years old, so I think I have to take it a little more seriously anyway”, concluded the athlete.