Freeman preparing for comeback
Reuters
20 September 2001 – Sydney, Australia -
Australia’s Olympic 400 metres gold
medallist Cathy Freeman says she has
finally rediscovered her competitive
juices after taking a year off.
Australia’s most prominent Aboriginal sportswoman said she was planning to resume training in about six weeks time and was targeting next year’s Commonwealth Games as her immediate goal.
“The tingly feeling’s definitely back,” Freeman told a corporate luncheon in Sydney on Thursday.
“There’s a time and a place for everything and when I check-in on the first day of November I’ll be ready to get back into it, go hard and try and win in the Commonwealth Games next year.”
Freeman became one of the world’s best known athletes when she lit the flame at the opening ceremony for the Sydney 2000 Olympics before winning gold.
Freeman became the first athlete to win Commonwealth Games titles in both the 200m and 400m events in Victoria, Canada in 1994. She missed the 1998 Games in Kuala Lumpur through injury.
Freeman also won the 400m at the 1997 and 1999 world championships but did not compete at this year’s titles in Edmonton after deciding to take a year’s sabbatical.
