It is perhaps hugely symbolic that Australian Catherine Astrid Salome Freeman also known as Cathy Freeman, former Olympic 400m champion is here as brand ambassador for Sunday's Mumbai Marathon
It is perhaps hugely symbolic that Australian Catherine Astrid Salome Freeman also known as Cathy Freeman, former Olympic 400m champion is here as brand ambassador for Sunday's Mumbai Marathon. At a time when India-Aus relations are going through bumpy times, there can be no better advertisement for the "oneness" of sport (in Cathy's own words) than bringing the Melbourne-based first ever Aboriginal Commonwealth Games gold medallist to India.
Cathy is very proud of her indigenous heritage. "Since having retired in 2004, I have devoted a lot of time to the Cathy Freeman Foundation, which works towards the welfare of young people in education, housing, literacy in Queensland (Australia). Since the place is a 15-minute flight from the mainland, people there feel somehow disconnected and that is what I am trying to bridge," said Cathy, who ran with the Australian flag in one hand and the Aboriginal flag in the other, making a huge political statement post her Sydney 2000 gold.
Cathy said, "I heard a few mutters in Australia because of that but I am proud of what I did, I wanted to share my pride at my indigenous roots if I get a chance, I would do it again."
She smiled as she saw the footage of her 400m race at the Olympics on a TV set at the media centre. It was hard to imagine the slim woman or "girl" as she said with a laugh, clad in a long, beige skirt and marathon t-shirt as the grim athlete on the start line dressed in a body suit in the race to reduce the wind drag. Answering a question whether, the 200m or the 400m was more challenging (she used to run both), she said: "For me, definitely the 200m, that's why I am not the Olympic champion in it."
Asked about the other great Aboriginal sportswoman, tennis champion Evonne Goolagong, Cathy said, "she has been embraced by all of Australia."
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