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| Thursday, 17 July 2003 |
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Flame goes out on Freeman's golden career SYDNEY, Wednesday (AFP) - Less than three years after Australian athletics icon Cathy Freeman lit the flame at the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics, and then capped it by taking the 400m crown, she extinguished her glittering career on Wednesday by retiring. "I've lost that want, that desire, that passion, that drive," said Freeman explaining to the Sydney Morning Herald her decision to retire. "I don't care anymore." To many the 30-year-old's retirement cannot come as much of a surprise as nothing could surpass the night of September 25, 2000 when she shoved aside the disappointment of the voluntary absence of two-time 400m Olympic champion Marie-Jose Perec and stormed to victory in her catsuit to take the title. Sinking to her knees in shock and with 100,000 fans cheering in her ears could hardly be bettered as she went on to drape both the aboriginal flag and the Australian one around her. First and foremost an Aborigine and then Australian in the 1996 Olympics she became the first Aborigine to win a medal when she took silver behind Perec. Her draping of both flags round her in Sydney was in stark contrast to the rebel at the 1994 Commonwealth Games who did a lap of honour wrapped in just the Aboriginal flag and got sharply rebuked by the Australian team chief. However, she never allowed her roots to be suppressed by running for Australia particularly as her grandmother had been one of the infamous 'Stolen Generation'. Indeed at her press conference the day after her Olympic triumph the expectation was that she would announce her retirement and concentrate on lobbying for improved rights for Aborigines. Instead she said that although she was thinking of a political career later on she still wanted to run - and commited the traditional error of athletes who should have bowed out at the top. The following three years saw her take a year off after the Sydney high, suffer a thigh injury on her return and, just as she was due to prepare properly for the 2002 Commonwealth Games, her husband Sandy Bodecker was diagnosed with throat cancer. Freeman decided to drop out of training for the Commonwealth Games and care for the Nike executive but in fairytale fashion returned to help the Australian 4x400m relay team take gold in Manchester. However, having seen Bodecker safely through his illness she announced they were separating earlier this year after three-and-a-half years of marriage as she claimed their lives had gone in opposite directions. The passion that had gone out of her marriage has been mirrored by the passion draining from her for the event she graced for 13 years and which brought the world one of those sporting moments that transcended the mere event for its drama and its symbolism. |
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