All hail to a little girl called Cathy

Add as a preferred source on Google

Sydney: From a Prime Minister to a proud parent; from an Aboriginal leader to a stock broker in London; from a defeated rival to a world champion.

It was all hail to a giggling little girl called Cathy at the Sydney Olympics on Monday.

Rarely in the history of the Games has one athlete received the adulation that poured down on Australian Aborigine Cathy Freeman after she won the women's 400 metres gold medal.

For less than a minute, the Olympics had to hold its breath while she raced to victory and then long pent up words of praise came tumbling out.

There was admiration at the poise the 27-year-old showed in going from standing alone in a ring of fire to light the Olympic cauldron to winning a gold medal before 100,000 baying fans.

There was awe at how she coped with a media -- and nation -- that turned her into a Martin Luther King-type figure for what she could do for race relations.

And most, most of all, there was simply joy that the fairy tale came true."I share the delight of all Australians at Cathy's wonderful win," Prime Minister John Howard said after watching the race.

Freeman's parents Cecelia and Bruce Barber said their daughter had united Australia.

"She's brought the people of Australia to come together as one group," her father said. "Whether it is Anglo Saxon, Asian or whatever, she's admired by so many people."

Sweetest words

For many Australians, they were the sweetest words of all as the young nation struggles for reconciliation over wrongs done to Aborigines when the country was first settled by whites.

Australia's surviving 300,000 Aborigines are the most disadvantaged group in the country with a life expectancy 20 years less than other Australians.

The original inhabitants of Australia now make up just 2.3 per cent of Australia's population of 19 million, which is made up of immigrants from 160 countries speaking 70 languages.

In London's financial district, where many Australians work, dozens took a mid-morning break to watch television.

"There were about 30 of us outside an electronics store watching -- all Aussies -- and it was pretty cool," said Scott Bagby, 27, from Sydney.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission chairman Geoff Clark said none of the superlatives showered on Cathy could do her justice.

"The fact that she has, as an Aboriginal woman, competed at the highest level, means she is already a champion," he said.

"Words cannot adequately convey the inspiration she provides to us, especially our young people, on or off the track."

American superstar Michael Johnson, who knows a thing or two about adulation and winning, for once found himself in the shadows as he won his second straight 400 metres Olympic gold in the race after the Cathy show.

"I was actually motivated by Cathy's race," he said. "I know what kind of pressure she was under. I was under a lot of pressure myself in a different way. She was able to do it and so that motivated me."

Silver medallist Lorraine Graham, of Jamaica, said, "Cathy Freeman always has it at the end. She's fantastic."

Bronze medallist Katherine Merry of Britain said she had no problems with the crowd's support for Freeman.

Merry's coach Linford Christie, himself an Olympic gold medallist in the 100 metres, warned her "when they announce Cathy Freeman, you're going to get your ears blown off".

"And when a crowd is that enthusiastic about an athlete, it has a knock-on effect on the rest of us. It was very inspiring," Christie said.

In Sydney's ghetto-like suburb of Redfern, tears streamed down the eyes of an elderly Aborigine woman.

"She's our sister. She makes all of us Aboriginals so proud of her. Every Aboriginal everywhere is running with her."

And what did the object of the adulation think of it all.

"Something like this happening to a little girl like me... I have to grow up sometime I suppose," said Freeman.



(c) Reuters Limited.