Freeman is coming
According to the chairman of the 2008 SP Sports Award Organising Committee Sir John Dawanincura, it is an honour to have the highly regarded and world famous Olympian attend the prestigious sports awards in Papua New Guinea next month.
“As this is an Olympic year, we are thrilled to have Catherine accept our invitation to visit PNG and be our guest speaker. The committee has always wanted her to attend in the past but her heavy schedule did not allow for this.”
Sir John added that Freeman’s trip is made possible by the major sponsor of the SP Sports Awards, SP Brewery in partnership with AusAID and the backing of Air Niugini and Crowne Plaza Port Moresby.
Born in Mackay, Queensland on Feb 16, 1973, Freeman was the first female Indigenous Australian to win a gold medal at an international athletics event. This occurred at the 1990 Commonwealth Games, Auckland, New Zealand. Freeman was a member of the Australian women’s 4x100m relay team when she was 16 years old.
She was also the first Indigenous Australian to represent Australia at an Olympic Games when she was chosen to compete in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Since then, her athletic career had grown from strength to strength.
She has won gold medals in Commonwealth Games, World Athletic Championships and the Olympic Games.
The highlight of Freeman’s career was when she was honoured with lighting the Olympic flame and winning the 400m gold at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
After representing Australia in numerous international competitions and winning many medals, Freeman decided to retired from the sports arena.
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