ABSTRACT
It is the night of Monday 25 September 2000, in the closing week of the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. In front of a record crowd the Australian athlete Cathy Freeman sprints clear to win gold in the women’s 400 metre final. It is Australia’s first Olympic gold medal in athletics since 1988, and the hundredth medal won by an Australian since the start of the modern Olympics in 1896. Momentarily exhausted, Freeman sits cross-legged on the track, hands over her eyes and mouth. Then, collecting a flag from the trackside, she sets off on a barefoot lap of honour, draped in her dual-sided flag – on one face the ‘southern cross’ standard of Australia, on the other the red, black and gold Aboriginal flag.
