Cathy Freeman

Catherine Freeman was born in Mackay, Queensland, into an Aboriginal family. Her grandmother had been taken from her own mother as a child under government policy. As a girl Cathy won races at school but on at least one occasion was not given the trophy, which went to a white girl who finished behind her. Her stepfather Bruce Barber saw her talent and coached her, and she left home for a sports scholarship at a boarding school.

At the 1994 Commonwealth Games she won the 200 and 400 metres and ran her laps of honour carrying both the Aboriginal and Australian flags. An official publicly rebuked her for it. She was 21 and it made her a political figure whether she wanted to be or not.

She took silver at the 1996 Olympics and won two world titles. Then Sydney was awarded the 2000 Games, and Freeman became, in effect, the face of them. She lit the cauldron at the opening ceremony, an act heavy with meaning in a country still arguing about its treatment of its first people.

Ten days later she walked out for the 400 metres final in a hooded green and gold bodysuit in front of 112,000 people. She won, sat on the track for a long moment looking stunned, and then did her lap with both flags again. This time nobody objected. She retired in 2003 and runs a foundation for the education of Indigenous children.