This decade featured Olympics in Sydney, Athens and Beijing as we celebrate the most memorable events in the 80-year history of AW
Freeman’s Sydney spectacular
When it comes to the Sydney Olympics of 2000, one athlete above all comes immediately to mind. The undisputed face of those Games was sprinter Cathy Freeman.
All of the eyes of the world were upon her when she lit the cauldron and then, on what became known as “Magic Monday”, she donned her speedsuit and met the acclaim of a 112,000-strong crowd in Stadium Australia as she won the women’s 400m gold in style.
As Jason Henderson wrote in his report for AW: “Forget about Sydney flu. Anyone entering Australia before these Games couldn’t avoid being bitten by a much stronger bug: Freeman fever. The Aboriginal icon, described in Australia as a mix between Princess Diana and David Beckham, such is her fame, had the pressure of a nation riding on her slim shoulders – and she did not disappoint.”
Freeman was no stranger to success, having won the world title in 1997 and 1999 but the pressure she was under cannot be overstated. Her main rival – France’s reigning Olympic champion Marie-Jose Perec, who had been hounded by the Australian media – fled the Games on the eve of the race. But, if anything, that only cranked up the expectation levels.
Running in lane six, Freeman stuck to her plan and it worked perfectly as she crossed the line in 49.11 ahead of Jamaica’s Lorraine Graham (49.58) and AW columnist Katharine Merry (49.72). Freeman became the first Aboriginal athlete to win an individual Olympic gold medal.
Gebreselassie v Tergat
Just minutes after Freeman’s heroics, the field lined up for the men’s 10,000m final. It was another race to remember and centred around two men – Haile Gebrselassie and Paul Tergat.
The latter had become accustomed to finishing second behind his great rival, who had not been beaten in five years and won three world titles and one Olympic gold in that time. Gebrselassie’s great strength was his finishing speed but, in Sydney, Tergat tried to beat him at his own game and it produced one of the most thrilling finishes ever seen in a distance race.
With 250m to go, Tergat went for broke and it was not until the final 20 metres that the Ethiopian drew level. It was during the closing 10 metres that he edged ahead and just hit the line first in 27:18.20 as Tergat finished only 0.09 behind. The winning margin…
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