Cathy Freeman and Saya Sakakibara at the Ready25 Conference in Sydney. Picture: Supplied
Trailblazer Cathy Freeman’s role in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games embedded her name as an icon in Olympic history, but it wasn’t without adversity as she revealed some of the highs and lows to a crowd at the Ready25 property industry event in Sydney.
“I’m a strong believer that one of the aspects of peak performance is joy,” Ms Freeman said to the room of real estate professionals on Thursday.
“If you can somehow infuse joy into your everyday life well then it just makes that load lighter.”
Overcoming adversity and self-prophesising victory was a key theme in the joint discussion on the main stage, which she shared with 2024 Olympic gold medallist Saya Sakakibara at the event.
The conference at Royal Randwick brought together 1,500 of Australia’s real estate professionals and through the event REA Group are set donate $500,000 to organisations tackling homelessness, with a large percentage of funds to be channelled through the new A Home For All Foundation.
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Cathy Freeman celebrates after winning gold in the Women’s 400m final held at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Credit: Nick Wilson/Allsport
Ms Freeman began racing at an early age and had a poster on her wall that said: ‘I am the world’s greatest athlete’. Her competitive drive was encouraged by her stepfather who was the first of many to believe in her potential at the age of 10.
“He said I looked like a horse when I ran, I think what he meant by that is that I had this fluidity when running in my stride and how relaxed I was when I moved,” Ms Freeman said to the crowd. “When you feel people believe in you, that is so powerful.”
Growing up in Mackay, Central Queensland she found a passion for running at school, beginning as a shy child.
“I was so shy, I went and hid in the toilets and my pushy teacher came and played me out,” she said. “However, from the moment I took that first step that was my life running.”
Freeman’s victory in 2000 followed heartbreak at the 1996 Olympics. Picture: Pat Scala
Ms Freeman spoke of the powerful and iconic moment in sporting and Australian history with her gold triumph as well as how this sparked a national conversation around reconciliation.
“It was just a fulfilling a dream. The Olympic gold medal was part of it and doing the victory lap with both Australian flags was part of the dream,” she said.
“I did everything with all my power to ensure it occurred.”
Cathy Freeman shared on Olympic journey at Ready25 in Sydney. Picture: Supplied
Speaking on challenges in the rise to success, Ms Freeman said she faced adversity in her private life coming off the back of a silver medal in Atlanta 1996.
“We all have private moments where life gets a little bit wobbly,” she said.
“The trajectory was just commencing and momentum and things were starting to get really serious.
“In the private time of my life I went through a personal crisis – I was kind of lost I guess.”
Ms Freeman said she nearly decided not to do the running 1997 season and it was a relationship with her teammates and race manager who convinced her to continue on.
“If I hadn’t won that first world title, one of two, I may not have had that momentum and confidence in myself when it came to lining up in Sydney,” she said.
BMX LEGEND’S OLYMPIC JOURNEY
Sharing the stage with Ms Freeman was Saya Sakakibara. Born on the Gold Coast in 1999, her early life centred around BMX, racing around Japan, Australia and internationally with her older brother Kai.
Starting at just four years old, she rose quickly, winning national and state titles and last year at the 2024 Paris Olympics winning gold.
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Australian Olympic gold medallist BMX racer Saya Sakakibara shared her journey to gold. Picture: Supplied
“Having Kai as a role model growing up was really instrumental,” she said.
“Suddenly we were on the world stage doing world cups and world champs. We were brother and sister and had this now dream – it was his dream that I adopted that we were going to go to the Olympics together.”
Life changed drastically in early 2020 when an accident left Kai in a coma fighting for his life and pushed Ms Sakakibara to continue on her own and ensure their joint dream became a reality.
“It was definitely traumatising, but through so much of that uncertainty there was one thing I knew for sure, that I wanted to go to the Olympic Games for the both of us,” she told the crowd.
Ms Sakakibara also suffered from two severe concussions in the lead up to Paris 2024.
For her success, she shared how she had to “embrace the mess” and have a clear “why”.
“Have a clear why and the other thing was believing that I’m going to get there,” she said to the room.
“Having those two things was so instrumental to go through every other setback that I’ve had and every other challenge that I’ve faced had less and less weight.
Saya Sakakibara won gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Picture: Supplied
“What I’m most proud of is not the medal, but who I became in order to get the medal.”
Ms Sakakibara told the crowd she had also taken a POV video of herself on a lap around the Olympic track around Paris two months before the games in training, watching it every day, training her mind and ultimately helping her to envision her win.
“Having rehearsed that every single day in the lead up to the games really allowed me to focus and deal with that high pressure moment,” she said.
Hearing Ms Sakakibara’s story, Ms Freeman weighed in on the importance of envisioning success.
“I was just reflecting on Michael Phelps and LeBron James and the self-prophesising,” she said. “This whole idea of rehearsing your optimal performance becomes part of the culture of excellence.”
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Ms Freeman announced her retirement in 2003, and now focuses on other ventures including the Cathy Freeman Foundation, her charity co-founded in 2007.
Ms Sakakibara recently finished a book on her journey to gold, coming out at the end of October and is now focusing on the World Championship title as her next goal.
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