Cathy Freeman Interview

[mump boy]

Thankyou all for your Phillips questions, we've really pushed the boat out for our next one.

Athletics Spectaculer Present the one and only Cathy Freeman

if you have any questions for this track legend please post below

you can join us on Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Jody-a ... 2165860583

follow us on Twitter

http://twitter.com/#!/JandBAthletics

or read the blog

http://jodybayosathleticsspectacular.blogspot.com/

Thanks in advance

[AS]

I've sent you three to start with (on FB)...

Good luck. You interviewing in person?

[mump boy]

I've sent you three to start with (on FB)...

Good luck. You interviewing in person?

thankyou i wondered who that was. Not in person i'm afraid she's in Oz we're in London, but we hung out with her in Split at Continental Cup last year. She is one of the nicest people i have ever met

[PCSExponent]

How does she feel about Perec's withdrawal in 2000 and the circumstances surrounding it, and does she think the race would have been different had Perec been in it?

[mojo]

What were her final thoughts as she got in the blocks to run the 400mF in Sidney?

[vip]

How much did Nike pay her to wear that jumpsuit? (hopefully a lot.) And was it hot? And did the suit restrict her stride? And has she ever been offered money for it?

Does she feel her message of equal rights for Aboriginal people still rings true, a decade later?

Where does she feel she ranks among 400 meter sprinters all-time?

[mump boy]

How does she feel about Perec's withdrawal in 2000 and the circumstances surrounding it, and does she think the race would have been different had Perec been in it?

we are so asking about this

[mump boy]

What were her final thoughts as she got in the blocks to run the 400mF in Sidney?

Can you image that ?? For me this was the most impressive run i have ever seen. I have never seen a athlete under so much pressure but she just ran it like every other race, i have no idea how you do that.

The times i've seen athletes with a fraction of the pressure in the same event completely blow it on the big day. Cathy was flawless

[mump boy]

How much did Nike pay her to wear that jumpsuit? (hopefully a lot.) And was it hot? And did the suit restrict her stride? And has she ever been offered money for it?

Does she feel her message of equal rights for Aboriginal people still rings true, a decade later?

Where does she feel she ranks among 400 meter sprinters all-time?

Have you been to Oz ? it still rings true, aboriginals are treated disgracefully it seems totally acceptable to be blatently racist !! I will be asking about this as Cathy is doing a lot of great work in aboriginal communities

Cathy is between 4-6 for me i think she's too modest to place herself but we'll ask

[vip]

Yes I was in Sydney for the Olympics and also went to the places they don't tell you about in the tourist guides. So I have an idea of what it was/is like.

Can't wait to hear her answers to all of these great questions!

[Speedster]

Here are a few:

She was considering a move to HSI to work with John Smith towards the end of her career, what did she think her true 100m potential was?

What was her favourite meet on the circuit?

She only had a few real significant injuries during her career, what did she feel was her secret for staying healthy?

[Rog]

Possible questions:

Cathy ran 48.63 in the 96 OG final, significantly faster than she had ever run before or ever would again - indeed she only got within 0.5 of a second once, in the 2000 final. Why does she think that is?

She retired fairly young - was this a reaction to her OG win? I've read that after OG wins a number of athletes actually go through a depressed period, but in her case I wonder if it was so prolonged that she threw in the towel.

Did she ever consider the 800?

The 400 is at a pretty low ebb at the moment, and tends to be prone to frequent down periods. Does she have an opinion of this?

Finally, Australia used to have any number of great female sprinters - Jackson, Cuthbert, Strickland, Boyle, herself etc, but has no-one of that standard now. Why does she think the standards were so high then, and lower now?

She's a great interview candidate btw, her run in Sydney was inspirational.

[Gabriella]

I'd like to put her on the spot and ask her predictions for Daegu and London, particularly the latter, in the women's 400m. Can Ohuruguo retain her title? Will Richards-Ross or Felix finally win individual gold (in the 400m)?

I'd like to hear her thoughts on Ohuruguo and Richards-Ross in terms on CO's back-to-back wins in 07 and 08 and RR's 'failures' in the same years, despite being the faster woman on paper.

On the Perec subject, does she have an opinion on the French woman training under Wolfgang Meier in 2000?

I'm interested in how she feels the 400m should ideally be run; a late surge in the final 100m from CO? RR's approach of a fast 100m, cruise the next 100m then hit it with 200m to go? The typical Russian approach of blast from the gun or very even 200m splits ala Jearl Miles?

I'd like to see whether she thinks Nicola Sanders should stick with the 400m or move up to 800m, but not sure whether that's a 'big' enough question.

[Alucard]

ask her to rank the top 5 female quartermiler of all time and the top 5 she compete against

[liuxuan]

sydney is viewed as her athletic peak - however as has been mentioned she ran 0.5 slower than 4 years earlier in atlanta.

sprinting times across the board in sydney were down on the norm for olympics due to late time of the year and cold conditions. does she feel this affected her winning time? most fans and cathy herself would have expected at least 48.50 - she was capable of more than this.

despite the dissapointing winning time (dissapointing because cathy's potential equallued a better PR), i still agree with mump, 400m sydney final is one of the greatest and most iconic athletics performances of all time!!

[Pentathlete 2]

First of all, fantastic interview of PI. I love athlete interviews and yours is top notch! I also really liked the picture of you two with PI. Too bad you can't do that with all athletes.

As for questions for CF, similar to mojo, I would like to know how she didn't let the pressure cause her to go out too fast in the first 200m. I think she was in the most pressured position of any T&F Olympian. I've read about many athletes in similar situations (home crowd, etc.) get so fired up that their first half is faster than normal, even though it doesn't feel like it to them, and that leads to them struggling home and not placing well.

Also, I've read others' reports that they feel she couldn't be motivated to train / compete well after Sydney. That sounds reasonable, but I would love to hear FROM HER what the circumstances were her last three years or so after 2000.

Great questions from prior posters.

thanks for the opportunity. That's all I can think of now.

[mump boy]

last chance for Cathy questions they are all going to her this weekend

[26mi235]

I think that the Atlanta track was 'overly' fast (too hard) and probably resulted in slightly quicker times. In addition, Atlanta is a slight but useful elevation, even at the speed of the women's 400 and warm and humid air is less dense than what was in Sydney. These factors make up at least part of the half-second differential in the races.

Is there anything about the races themselves that made the time faster in Atlanta (nature of the competition and race strategy/strengths of others in the race and hence her strategy?

[7-sided]

Freeman employed the same "suicide" strategy in Göteborg one year earlier and blew up. It just so happened that in Atlanta she was able to go a bit further before being "broken" by Perec.

Tuesday, August 08, 1995 - 19:30

Pos Lane Athlete Country Mark
1 6 Pérec Marie-José FRA 49.28
2 5 Davis-Thompson Pauline BAH 49.96
3 3 Miles-Clark Jearl USA 50.00
4 4 Freeman Cathy AUS 50.60
5 1 Yusuf Fatima NGR 50.70
6 8 Ogunkoya Falilat NGR 50.77
7 7 Malone-Wallace Maicel USA 50.99
8 2 Richards Sandie JAM 51.13

[mump boy]

At last

http://jodybayosathleticsspectacular.bl ... rview.html

It's a corker

[Johnners]

Fantastic interview. Interesting that she answers many questions that others wouldn't (albeit diplomatically). Would be interested to hear others' thoughts.
PS she loves Perec

[mump boy]

PS she loves Perec

Who doesn't ??

We are so grateful for the time and effort she out in to doing this, she really thought about each question and answered them all comprehensively

A true legend of and a credit to our sport

[mojo]

Awesome work you two! Thank you to Cathy for answering our questions.

We are going to send a link to the interview to our athletes. She is a role model in every way.

Can I meet her next time we get together guys? Yes you just phone her and she will come around for a good old chin wag!

[AS]

Great work!! I can't believe she answered three of my questions. She's so sweet...

[mump boy]

Anyone who's read the interview please comment on the bottom so she can see your views of how great she is

[feltdog70]

My favorite question from the interview...

Who would you include in the greatest women's 400m Final of all time? Be it times, personalities, ability...You have to include yourself of course Thaank’s!!

Thank you for my message of congratulations Jack.
My ideal women’s 400 metre race would include:
Perec
Felix
Richards-ross
Freeman
Koch
Kratochvilova
Vladykina-Bryzgina
Ohuruogu

I wonder who would win? Koch, Perec? This would definitely be a monster of a race...

[Rog]

Great interview, I feel privileged to have contributed to the questions. Interesting to hear her talk about her laidback approach, that must have been crucial in Sydney 2000 - as someone else said, she possibly faced more pressure than anyone ever has in an Olympics.

Great to hear she's a mum now as well! Welcome to the world, Ruby Freeman!

[7-sided]

Wow! How does she possibly pick Ohuruogho over Williams-Darling??? Or Guevara??? If you threw Christine O into that 1996 Olympic Final she would have finished no better than 5th!!! (I think you would have to run 3 heats before Ohuruogu even gets a lane for best w400) Koch wins the race going away. I would not be surprised if Perec didn't make the podium.

My favorite question from the interview...

Who would you include in the greatest women's 400m Final of all time? Be it times, personalities, ability...You have to include yourself of course Thaank’s!!

Thank you for my message of congratulations Jack.
My ideal women’s 400 metre race would include:
Perec
Felix
Richards-ross
Freeman
Koch
Kratochvilova
Vladykina-Bryzgina
Ohuruogu

I wonder who would win? Koch, Perec? This would definitely be a monster of a race...

[feltdog70]

Wow! How does she possibly pick Ohuruogho over Williams-Darling??? Or Guevara??? If you threw Christine O into that 1996 Olympic Final she would have finished no better than 5th!!! (I think you would have to run 3 heats before Ohuruogu even gets a lane for best w400) Koch wins the race going away. I would not be surprised if Perec didn't make the podium.

My favorite question from the interview...

Who would you include in the greatest women's 400m Final of all time? Be it times, personalities, ability...You have to include yourself of course Thaank’s!!

Thank you for my message of congratulations Jack.
My ideal women’s 400 metre race would include:
Perec
Felix
Richards-ross
Freeman
Koch
Kratochvilova
Vladykina-Bryzgina
Ohuruogu

I wonder who would win? Koch, Perec? This would definitely be a monster of a race...

Koch would probably win, especially if she would run like she did when she set the 400WR while running out of lane 2.

[Rog]

If we're talking the top 8 in history, Szewinska would have to be in there, too. Other possibilities - the mysterious Sin Kim Dan? Kocembova?

Koch would definitely win, with Kratochvilova second, but then it would be tough to call...

[jackbean]

Have you been to Oz ? it still rings true, aboriginals are treated disgracefully it seems totally acceptable to be blatently racist !!

Bull. Acceptable?!? You're thinking of the BBC where it's completely acceptable to be racist. Oh and I once went through Harlem in the States, so I'm qualified to talk about race relations in America. Ask me anything!