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Photo: Cathy when she was roughly nine months old.
Photograph taken from Freeman's autobiography: Born to Run
Born on the 16th February 1973 in Mackay, Queensland. Cathy is descended from the Kuku Yalanji people of far north Queensland and the Burri Gubba people of Central Queensland. Cathy’s grandmother was born into the Indigenous community of Palm Island. Cathy is the third child in a family of five children. When Cathy was five years old, her parents divorced.
Photo: Cathy in her Queensland team uniform
Photograph taken from Freeman's autobiography: Born to Run
Even though she regularly ran for fun barefoot around the neighbourhood, Cathy’s talent for running was first recognised after she won an eighty-metre dash at a school athletics carnival event. Seeing her gift for running, her teacher Mrs Bauldry encouraged her and raised money for Cathy to be able to attend the state primary school championships, where she won a gold medal. This moment was significant because it was the first sign to show that Cathy was naturally talented in running, she might not be here today otherwise.
At nine years old, Cathy's mother married a new non-Indigenous man named Bruce Barber. He became a very significant man in Cathy's early and later life. He encouraged her and became Cathy's first coach, stimulating and further promoting Cathy's talent. He taught Cathy many things, including the practice of putting up a poster on the wall, with her ambitions or goals on it. Cathy wrote 'I am the world's greatest athlete.' This technique was used by Cathy until adulthood to help her reach her goals.
Photo: Cathy with her first professional coach, Mike Danila
Photograph taken from Freeman's autobiography: Born to Run
At sixteen, Cathy Freeman started making a legacy for herself. Having trained with several professional coaches through the different schools she attended, one in particular, Mike Danila believed that Cathy had serious talent, enough to participate and compete in the Commonwealth Games.
Photo: Cathy and the 4x100m relay team with their medals
At the trials, she competed in two events, the 100m and the 200m. Cathy’s times were fast enough for her to be able to compete in the 100m relay, where she was the youngest in the team. Running third leg, she was able to see their team come first. Cathy Freeman was the first Australian Aborigine to win a track-and-field Commonwealth Games medal in history!
Three days after Cathy won the Commonwealth Games, she received the news that her older sister, Anne-Marie died after an asthma attack. This was significant for Cathy, because it gave her an incentive. It motivated Cathy to work hard and win her races in memory of Anne-Marie.
Photo: Cathy with her Young Australian of the Year award.
In 1990, Cathy was selected to compete in the World Junior Championships in Athletics. She travelled to Plodiv, Bulgaria and reached the semi finals of the 100m and fifth in the final of the 400m.
She was then awarded Young Australian of the Year for 1990. Cathy is an inspiration for the First Nations people, she shows them what they could become if they work hard.
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