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| Cathy Freeman |
Former Olympic champion Cathy Freeman is delighted at the return of Jana Rawlinson to the athletics track and urged the whole of Australia to get behind the twice world champion.
Rawlinson, who 400 metres hurdles gold at the 2005 and 2007 world championships, made her first appearance in Australia for six years and her first since 2009 last week at the start of a bid to compete at next year’s London Olympics.
“She’s still chasing her dream and that’s wonderful for us all, for athletics, for the country and for young dream chasers everywhere,” Freeman told Reuters yesterday.
Unlike Freeman, who captured the hearts of her nation when she won the 400m on the flat at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Rawlinson has not always enjoyed great popularity in Australia.
Her Olympic dreams were ruined by a knee injury at the 2004 Athens Games and by a toe injury ahed of the Beijing Games four years later, but she is hoping for better luck in London.
“I think the expectation is that she will medal,” said Freeman. “I think it’s important that we show her all the support that we can. I believe in her. Go girl!”
Freeman was speaking on the sidelines of a Laureus foundation event in central Sydney, where Aborigine children were trained in rugby and indigenous sports.
Now 38 and heavily pregnant, Freeman was not able to play a hands on role but was still hoping that sport would inspire the children much as she was inspired by 1988 Olympic champion Debbie Flintoff-King, and inspired Rawlinson in her turn.
“We don’t have a lot of Olympic champions in the sport of athletics in Australia,” she said.
“So when we have them, we really revere them. It’s lovely that people like Jana were inspired by me, moved enough to take up the sport and pursue their dreams.”
Freeman also welcomed the International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s decision to introduce guidelines for women athletes who naturally produce excessive male hormones in time for the London Games.
“In this particular instance, I applaud their move to restructure their testing procedures with the intent of improving it for everybody involved and ensuring that it’s an equal playing field for everyone,” she said.
Freeman’s was equally excited by the prospect of three-times world 200m champion Allyson Felix of the US training to double up in the Australian’s old distance for this year’s world championships and the next Olympics.
“She is one of my favourite athletes, I love watching her run, it’s poetry in motion,” said Freeman. “She’s versatile, she’s got speed, endurance, she seems to have a good head on her shoulders.
“She’s my favourite athlete, has been for a long while. I’m really excited about that.”